Have you ever participated in that vicious, horrible, defeating game of comparison? You know the one when you attempt to measure your life, accomplishments, economical class and dinner menu with others. Ah, I have participated one too many times. Despite hearing countless messages, tweets and quotes about the dangers of comparing my life to others, I still, willingly participate. It leaves me broken, unsatisfied and anxious every single time.
There has never been a time when I compared myself/ my life to someone else’s and thought good thoughts and left feeling better than before I played this ugly game.
I love social media and all our opportunities to peak into the life of someone else. Whether that’s our family who lives across the country or the person whom we admire and look up to, the one who doesn’t have a clue who we are. You know, the one who even after commenting on their photos, reply to their tweets or hashtag their famous hashtag still doesn’t know who you are or even bothers to reply? Those people. The people in our social media stream who post about their kids, their lunch or their new car. I love all these people, I too post about my life–my family, my church, my breakfast…
This is where I play most of my comparison game. This past week, especially. This game lured me in, chewed me up and spit me out feeling defeated.
Our son Jett is growing like crazy and he is in to everything. His two favorite things to do is open the pantry and the fridge. A few days ago, he grabbed his cup, walked over to the fridge and grabbed the jug of milk and walked over to me. He didn’t even struggle carrying this huge, almost bigger than his body, milk jug. I was impressed. I, my friends thought–I have the strongest baby on the planet. It wasn’t until I grabbed the milk from his hands and realized it was nearly empty.
This was my BLOG moment.
I put it back into his hands and snapped a picture or two while saying, “This is what I do everyday.” I allow my perception of something/ someone to alter my feelings about them or myself, resulting in an altered, often false understanding of reality.
My son is strong, but he is not the strongest baby on the planet. How I perceived him in changed my feelings all together. I exchanged truth with perceived truth in a single moment.
I do this almost everyday. I scroll past images, walk by people, sit next to others at a coffe shop and I size up everything. The two areas in my life I don’t ever do this in is with my husband or my kids. I believe without a shadow of a doubt that I have the best husband and the best kids on the planet. My resolve in that alone keeps me from ever doubting, questioning or wishing for different.
The same should be true for other areas in my life. I should carry that same resolve, that same “I believe this to be true NO MATTER WHAT..” mentality into every other area of my life. And so should you. I believe I am not alone in this life- sucking, joy- stealing game of comparison.
So, here is what I decided. I decided to write out the TRUTH about other areas of my life & will believe them even when I am tempted to doubt. I am going to focus on these truths and do whatever I need to do to not focus or WORRY about what others are doing, accomplishing or what I am perceiving them to do or accomplish.
There’s a unique plan & purpose for me to accomplish. There’s a unique plan and purpose for you to accomplish and when we compare, we doubt and become less confident in that truth.
The enemy (satan) would love nothing more than for you and for me to throw away our confidence in Jesus and ourselves. When he gets us focusing on what we don’t have, we no longer see what we do have. Eve was faced with this same temptation in the garden of Eden. She had EVERYTHING, but focused on the one thing she wasn’t supposed to have.
There are things in our life that we may never get to experience or have or accomplish because they are not meant for us. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have things that we will experience or accomplish.
God has not forgotten about you, He hasn’t forgotten about me. He knows the desires of your heart and today, He is asking you and me to trust Him! His word encourages us to hold on to hope and to be confident in Him and who He made us to be.
That means we must fight the urge to look to our left or to the right, and instead, focus on our life. It also takes us rejoicing and celebrating with others as they receive or walk in what we do desperately desire. Whether that’s a new house, a promotion, a baby…. ________ you fill in the blank.
Rejoice and celebrate because that means if He can do it for them, He can do it for you! Same way, same timing, same package? Probably not…but that wouldn’t make your story unique, it would just make it a copy cat, duplicate. And deep down inside we don’t want that–We want our own story, even if it’s messy and lacks the “worlds strongest baby, vibe.” But it’s our story, and that makes it beautiful.
So friends, I don’t have the world’s most strongest baby, but I do have a baby who can hold an empty gallon of milk…that’s the truth & im sticking with it.
TRUTH:
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”. Hebrews 10:35, 36
DARE:
Write down what you know to be true about you, your family, your community, your job… And anytime you are tempted to question or doubt those things, remind yourself of them!!!
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