The Art of Thinking Sensibly
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The Art of Thinking Sensibly

thinkingI recently attended the SheSpeaks Conference in North Carolina.  It was great and I learned a lot.  However, some of what I learned would probably not be the things the speakers may have intended.  As I sat in breakouts and listened to the keynotes (the people teaching me how to be like them), I felt myself asking questions.  How do these women do it?  How do they travel, write Bible Studies, raise kids, enjoy their husbands, and essentially, live out the message they are teaching?  

The reality is that these women do not have more hours in their day than I have in mine.  So, I feel that my question is legitimate.  How do they live out the message they are teaching with all the other things they are doing?

[Tweet “The reality is that these women do not have more hours in their day than I have in mine. “]

I can’t give you the answer but what I do know is that as women, we are experts at comparing ourselves with one another and even wishing we were someone else.  We base our comparison on someone’s highlight reel not upon a sensible evaluation of what is really happening.

[Tweet “We are experts at comparing ourselves with one another and even wishing we were someone else. “]

Our job is to fulfill the calling and purpose we were created by God for.  Quit trying to be someone else.  In Romans, Paul says to “think sensibly” in regards to who you are and what God wants to do with you.

For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.–Romans 12:3

Our job is not to try to be someone else.  With sensibility, consider your gifts, consider your talents, your past experiences and your passions.  What is the unique way you were shaped to be used?

According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts:

If prophecy,
use it according to the standard of one’s faith;
if service, in service;
if teaching, in teaching;
if exhorting, in exhortation;
giving, with generosity;
leading, with diligence;
showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

How have you struggled with trying to be “like” someone else when God created you for something uniquely made for you?  Share with me your thoughts about comparing and how to “think sensibly” in regards to your gifts.

[Tweet “Our job is to fulfill the calling and purpose we were created by God for.”]

13 comments found

  1. I am in the season of my life where God asked me to step down from my small business to attend to my heart and family.
    In this journey God has shown me I need to take better care of myself. Not just my health but to continuously remain in the Holy Spirit, renewing my mind, and have godly thoughts and feelings toward myself.
    I have learned in this journey I HAD a very negative view of myself, the gifts I was given, and a lot of those feelings and views stemmed from misconception ,comparison to others, and the desire to be and center by others ( fear of rejection).
    By remaining in the Holy Spirit and accepting truth from God I’m learning thoughts hat God loves me, I’m His beloved, and He made me very special . A uniniqueness that isn’t replicated.

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  2. How true! Great post Bobi about your She Speaks experience. Recently I was teaching a class at my church and half way through the 12 week session my church offered another class watching a DVD from Beth Moore, and I lost more than half of my class. Oh wow did I struggle with that, and felt like I could never compare with her. I learned many of the things that you did at that amazing conference, but I am now embracing the calling that God has on my life everyday more and more. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Bobi Ann. I felt the SAME way two years and was so so relieved when Lysa sat on the stage and told us how she did it. She delegated work. She hired folks to clean her house. She did ONLY the things she could do. I have been hesitant to share “how I do it” in fear that I’ll lose my homemaker card or mom card. I too want to be authentic to the very things I am writing about. Part of me wants to scream from the stage – DON’T DO IT while your kids are home. Mine both just went to school full-time and there is so much more time and margin. I can breathe. When they are younger, it is truthfully so so hard to balance. I do have someone clean my house. I do have a virtual assistant. I did outsource my product and have someone else ship and produce it. We CANNOT and should not do it all. I could type for days on this. It will look different for each of us. You are right in that comparison doesn’t help because each writer and speaker is at a different stage. Some work on this full-time. Some have giant budgets. Some don’t. Some have four kids in school and some have 8 at home. You just keep seeking God’s will for this season. Follow that. It will always be a tough balance. Not ONE writer has it figured out. They always want more time at home and at work. Stuff is always still on the plate. Big rocks in first – God, husband, kids. I don’t cook very much. We eat out a lot. 🙂

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    1. Never too honest! I think it is so important that we don’t try to imitate leaders…we should become leaders in our own circles. Leading looks different for everyone and priorities are different for everyone. We should quit trying to be anyone beside who God uniquely made us to be. Thanks for the link-up by the way.

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  5. Thanks for linking up.

    I think it is very important that we stay authentically ourselves. It can be tricky when there are SO MANY amazing women who have blazed a trail before us. There is so much to learn from them, but we must be very careful not to envy them or try to be them. . .it is an exciting, yet dangerous place to be. I suppose we learn as we go.

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  6. I loved all you shared here.. we are all individuals.. and one thing I took away fr being there just like you… is that we don’t only have to do ministry within our church walls… what we do daily in the lives of everyone we meet is our ministry. Our calling. I am unrushing my life and devoting more time to studying His Word and delving deeper into that dark room. I wanna do all I can for Him with the talents I have been given. I can’t be another Lysa or Christine, but I can be an awesome me! xo

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  7. Found you through the SheSpeaks link-up! New follower on Bloglovin’ and kind of your neighbor. I completely agree with your post. We tend to look at each other and think that’s the life we want. When it’s not ours to live. God has given each one of us our very own purpose and mission that he wants us to fulfill. But since we like to choose our own lives…I want to be Jen Hatmaker! 🙂

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  8. You speak very well about a topic that is a current learning point for me. I am a creative, idea girl, so I always have scenarios in my mind of how I would like life to play out. Sometimes I have to stop and remember that whatever God has planned for my life is way better than what I dream up myself. Enjoyed your thoughtful post!

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  9. I love your take on the conference. I’ve often had those same thoughts.

    Having just gone through a long season of saying no to most ministry opportunities so that I could say yes to my family, I realize that I’m still in a season where my family needs me available.

    God began preparing me for this before the conference, so I wasn’t surprised to hear “no, not yet” from a publisher. God has good plans for each us, but we would be very wise to consider that he also has the best timing for those plans to be carried out.

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  10. What a great message. I truly think comparison can be like a fungus that keeps us from growing. I think it is the distraction that makes us take our eye off of God. Soaking in the vastness of God’s love that is where we will flourish – looking in HIs mirror and not out our window! We find our perfect balance to make us what He wants. I find myself always seeing someone else and saying but I’m not_______ like them. Time to put the blinders on! Thanks for provoking thought today!

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