Grace says you don’t need to compare

After being all-together, all-the-time this summer, I’m worn out by all-the-questions our girls ask.

“Why is carbon dioxide bad for us? I mean, don’t we exhale it, anyway?”

“How do players get selected for the All-Star Game?”

“When was language invented? How did they do it? Who decided that a chair would be called a chair?”

I don’t know. Despite your pleas, I will not Google it. 

My snippiness leads to this thought, “I bet ‘other moms’ are not annoyed right now and are filled with love, grace, and have curated a MakerSpace area for crafts and creative thought. Blergh.” In my mind, “other moms” – a generic term I coined to express every mom who isn’t me and has it together – are way more awesome than me. And I compare myself to “other moms” on an hourly basis. 

Comparison is killing us Try-Hard Girls. The good news is that you and I don’t have to stay stuck in comparison.

We are masters at comparing All The Things.

Comparison is the mindgame you play with yourself against other people as if there will be a winner and loser in this imaginary contest where you are both the judge and the defendant. It’s an internal process in which life is binary and most often, you end up on the losing side. We compare our bodies, careers, housekeeping skills, vacations, friendships, decorating, and marriages to others. There is nothing we won’t compare. In fact, I even compare myself to myself, e.g. Last year I fit into these jeans, but this year I can’t. Blergh.

Comparison is a tactic used by your enemy.

You have a real spiritual enemy who seeks you out to kill, destroy, and rob you of what God intends you to experience. Your enemy knows these truths about comparison:

1. Comparison keeps your eyes off how you can use your gifts to build God’s kingdom. 
2. It sows dissatisfaction and ingratitude. 
3. Comparison shatters connection and fosters unnecessary (and imaginary) competition. 
4. It perpetuates conformity.
5. Comparison dehumanizes the person you’re comparing yourself against. 
6. It breeds shame and inadequacy. 

Yes, comparison is a cruel, but effective tactic used by your enemy, who wants you incapacitated, isolated, and inactive.

And he is messing with the wrong girl.

Grace says you don’t need to compare. 

You are God’s girl. His beloved. His daughter who He fearfully + wonderfully made. He planned out your days and knew your words before you spoke them.

God has given you your family, your boss, your neighbors, and your friends for such a time as this.

You do not have time to roll over and call it a day. 

You do have the power and authority of the Almighty God who is before you, beside you, behind you, and within you.

You are God’s girl, and you will not be messed with. 

Comparsion will not trip you up. Not today. Not as long as God gives you breath to breathe. 

Grace says you don’t have to play your enemy’s comparison game.

Grace says comparison is a waste of your time because you’ve got Kingdom work to do.

Grace says you have the power to end comparing yourself to others today.

You don’t have to play your enemy’s comparison game. 

One reason you don’t have to play the comparison game is because God crafted you in such a way to only you have your exact circle of influence. Only you have the hopes and dreams and passions that fit perfectly with a hurting world that longs for what you have to offer. Only you can tell your unique testimony to the gospel of grace.

God gives you all the freedom and opportunity in the world to live out your dreams, interests, and talents. You don’t have to conform to others or live in a box of “shoulds.”

You are free to live out what God uniquely purposefully placed in you. You have the opportunity to use your divine gifts and live an abundant life. This life allows you to embrace the good works pre-destined for you to do because your plan doesn’t have to be everyone else’s plan. Without comparsion, you have the capacity to embrace who you most fully are.

Try-Hard friend, discover who God created you to be then become her.

Because the truth of the matter is you were made to be a light and image-bearer, and you can only do this when you conform and compre yourself to Christ, not those around you. The world needs you to be who only you can be.

Comparison is a waste of your time because you’ve got Kingdom work to do. 

One reason you don’t have time to play the comparison game is because you’ve got a light to shine and Kingdom work to do (Matthew 5:16). 

Your good work glorifies God, and Jesus calls us to radiate so brilliantly that people (1) notice your good work and (2) glorify God as a result of it. Your people, whether the littles in your playroom or your boss in the boardroom, know what goodness looks like, and good work leads to praising God. 

Don’t rob God of His glory by not shining your light.

You have the power to end comparing yourself to others today.

One reason the enemy’s comparison-tactic is so effective is because it keeps your eyes on you and not on Christ. Your life, your purpose, your mission, and your hope are about God. This is not about you and what you have (or don’t).

Comparison ends when you understand that what you have is from God.

It ends when you know God is the main attraction.

Comparison ends when you embrace that God provides for different people in different ways. 

Grace says you can stop comparing.

Whether you compare yourself to your neighbor, boss,  imaginary “other moms,” or your previous self, grace knows comparison isn’t good for you, God’s Kingdom, or the people He placed in your path to serve. 

I want your heart to rail against the notion that you should settle or conform so you are less than what God created you to be. Resolve that comparison will not happen on your watch. God’s people don’t live in timidity, wondering if they’re winning the comparison game. You are God’s girl and you don’t have time to play the comparison game. 

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