Her hair is always so cute! Why won’t my hair do that?
The cupcakes she brought to the Christmas party had elves popping out singing The 12 Days of Christmas! But it’s okay, I picked up some Oreos on the way, and they were good too.
She’s always so lovely and friendly, and it’s all I can do to not scream at my children on the way to school.
It’s hard to own who God made you to be when you’re focusing on the skills, personality, and gifts God gifted someone else. Comparing yourself with someone else does nothing but stir up feelings of self-doubt, resentment, and discouragement.
God has called you to something better than living in a pit of self-doubt and discouragement. Your ability to resist the temptation to compare and learn to embrace who you are and become all God created you to be will directly impact your influence.
Comparison suffocates influence and isn’t your responsibility.
My children love to “take care” of each other by reminding the other what they should or shouldn’t be doing or coming to me with complaints that “she didn’t have to do that” or “or he got more than I did.”
I once heard a preschool teacher tell a small child who was busy with someone else’s business to “drive your own bus.” I stole that phrase and have regularly used it as a parent.
Jesus dealt with the same busy-body attitudes as He led his disciples.
“When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!'” –John 21:21-22
Jesus essentially told Peter to stop comparing himself to anyone else and drive his own bus.
Paul wrote something similar to the church in Philippians in Philippians 3:16 when he said “Only let us live up to what we have already attained” by reminding them to first take care of what God has entrusted them with instead of nosing into what has been assigned to someone else.
We are quick to look at those around us and hold ourselves up against strengths given to someone else. When we do this we either:
- Feel inferior, jealous or resentful (which is exhausting), or
- Feel superior and fall into the sin of pride and arrogance.
Stop comparing yourself to anyone else. Confidently embrace who you are as God’s masterpiece. Let the reality of your identity solidify within you because knowing whose you are will shine a light on how you are to live.
6 comments on “Comparison Devastates Your Influence”
Thank you for this!
This is so good Bobi Ann! Boy do us women have issues with this one : / Thank you for sharing.
its a constant all the time battle!!
it’s a constant all the time battle!!
This is so true, with the “perfect life” every one posts on facebook, young women compare their life to what is usually NOT real! I just saw a picture that a friends daughter had on her page, she had doctored and sculpted her face…..it was a beautiful picture….she looks nothing like the picture! Sad, society wants women to be thin, beautiful (on the outside) smart, etc….who can live up to those standards?
This is a good article, Bobi Ann. Thank you.
Janice
Social media has made this an even harder challenge and for women of all ages we struggle to embrace who God created us to be by longing to be someone else.