comparison is the thief of joy.

man, has God been teaching me that lately. 

com·par·i·son

1. the act of comparing. 2. the state of being compared.

 as long as there have been humans on this earth, there has been comparison. Take Joseph's brothers for example, they sold their own brother because they couldn't take the fact that when they compared themselves to him, they felt inferior. 

Ladies, how often do you find yourself on instagram, stalking someone you look up to or someone "instafamous" and comparing yourself to them? Maybe it's their great wardrobe, their 15 seconds of perfect harmonies, knack for DIY projects, their seemingly perfect relationship, or even how they always manage to get the perfect smokey eye?

guys, I don't know for sure about you, but it can't just be a female struggle. someone's always gonna have greater biceps than you or a better car.

How many hours have we spent feeling sorry for ourselves that we don't posses the skills we wish we did? I'll be honest, if comparison were an olympic sport, I'd had already won gold.

Today, I attended the funeral of an absolutely beautiful soul. She was only 18 years old and she has often been described as "pure sunshine." her smile and spirit lit up every room she walked into. Everyone agreed that she lived and loved more in her 18 years than most people do in 100.
During the duration of this funeral, not once was her beautiful curly hair and big brown eyes, model Christian relationship, cute style or even her flawless voice mentioned. She was known by her love. She always dropped what she was doing to make you feel loved, she allowed Jesus to shine out of her to everyone she met. She was truly known by her love.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:12: “in all this comparing and grading and competing, they quite miss the point.” life is so fleeting, I don't know about you, but I don't wanna miss the point. I don't want to miss Jesus because I am too wrapped up in comparison, self-pity and worrying what others will think of me.

So how do we beat the temptation to compare ourselves to others? Thankfulness. being thankful to God for who we are and how He made us and trusting that we are all made for a special purpose.

I love this quote by Joyce Meyer, she says, "God must love variety or He wouldn't have created us all differently—even down to our fingerprints. You'll never succeed at being yourself if you're trying to be like someone else. Other people can be a good example to you, but duplicating even their good traits will manifest differently through your individual personality." You are beautiful, you were created for a huge purpose that only you can fulfill. When we can accept ourselves and love ourselves for who we are, we can walk in the ultimate freedom. 

Matthew 5:5 in The Message version says: “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought." so how about this, let's try to use the time that we would tear ourselves down to build others up! Instead of hating ourselves because we can't sing as well as the girl on instagram, how about telling her how beautiful her voice is, and then thanking God that He has instilled talents in you that He will reveal and use in its time. 

Because in the end, they won't know us by our clothes, our photography skills, how strong out "selfie game" is, or what instruments we played and how well. They will know us by our love. Be love today.