from incourage, on Comparing Yourself (stealing your peace and joy)
Every login, every click thru, nearly every email, has the potential to make me feel so inadequate.
The beautiful homes on Pinterest shine a light on my crayon scribbled fingerprinted walls and the many piles of laundry waiting to be folded.
The bloggers with their gorgeous photography point out how badly I need a lesson on how to use a camera.
The beauty tutorials on Youtube make me wonder how I ever survived not knowing how to apply liquid eyeliner before now.
Every new success on Facebook reminds me of my failures.
But oh, sister, Jesus wants us to be reminded of truth. To ignore those lies that we aren’t enough. To step away if it becomes too much.
We all, each of us, are in different seasons of life. We make different choices, and God has different plans. Jealousy can so quietly slip in and take root and slip it’s vine-shaped lies around our throat, and squeeze.
Squeeze until we’re nearly suffocated, and can’t even hear God’s Spirit wooing us back to Him.
The best weapon against this stuff? Gratitude, quiet (unplugging), prayer and more prayer.
What to pray for? Ask God to refine your heart and buff out those harder edges that need softening towards others, the edges that make you feel like you don’t measure up. The edges that make you forget how blessed you really are, even if those blessings don’t look like everyone else’s. It’s grace to realize when these issues pop up, grace when we can rest in the truth that Jesus is in the business of redeeming. And grace when He forgives us for forgetting it.
Do you need to take time off from the compare-a-lot habit you’ve acquired? Have you been sucked in in the past and learned your lesson? We’d love to hear your stories.
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By Arianne of To Think Is To Create
By Arianne of To Think Is To Create
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