Are You Losing Your Joy Through Comparing Your Life to Others?
Comparison is the thief of joy - Theodore Roosevelt
How many times have you compared your life to someone else’s and come up feeling like you got the short end of the stick? We can be so content with our life until we start looking around and wishing we had what others have. Why can’t we be grateful for our own blessings instead of comparing what we have to others? It really does steal our joy and appreciation of our own life.
Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
An Incredible Story of Comparison
I was listening to an interview with Angela Mills on Focus on the Family. She told a story that illustrated this better than anything I have ever heard, recounting a double date with her husband and another couple (whom the wife was a close friend). Her friend’s husband was incredibly affectionate towards his wife. Angela started to feel envious of how much attention he was showing his wife. Angela began to question whether her own husband didn’t find her attractive and wishing he would show her more physical attention. No words were exchanged about any of this, but the comparison of her marriage to her friends stayed in her mind throughout the evening and the next few days. She didn’t verbalize it to her husband, but she knew he could feel something was different. Angela started to question the sexual intimacy in her marriage, her appearance, their bond, etc.
Angela met with her friend a few days later and eventually spoke up about how affectionate her friend’s husband had been toward her and that she was envious. Her friend quickly responded back “You shouldn’t be!” Angela’s friend had found out the afternoon of their date that her husband had been having an affair! He had been trying to be extra flattering to her to gain her forgiveness! The situation that Angela had been envious of and compared her own marriage to was not at all what she thought….and was not a marriage to be envied at all.
Where comparison begins, contentment ends - Craig Groeschel
Isn’t this what we do so often though? We make up a vision in our mind of someone else’s story or cirumstance and we build it up into something that isn’t even close to reality. We create the perfect highlight reel story – that doesn’t even exist – and then we compare our own life to that falsehood! That is absolute insanity! The road of comparison is one that we all seem to journey down, but we need to put up the road block and return to our own reality. Our life is where we actually have facts instead of comparing our reality to an unattainable fantasy we have created in our mind. Stop the insanity!
James 3:14-16
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
Are We Hopping Right Into the Devil's Trap?
When we compare our life to others we are willingly walking down the exact path that the devil has prepared for us. He set the trap to entice us and we hopped right on in. What if I had that marriage? What if we could afford that house or vacation? What if, what if, what if….. We are like a cat who just can’t keep himself from jumping into the Christmas tree covered in bright, shiny ornaments! We know that nothing good will come from comparing our created illusion to our own truth, but we jump right into Satan’s trap.
Don't Miss What God Created You For
God created us unique, for specific purpose, with particular talents to influence specific people placed in our path….if we are busy chasing after the bright, shiny things that others “appear” to have then WE HAVE MISSED WHAT GOD CREATED US FOR by lusting after what is someone else’s blessing. God has purpose and blessings specifically planned just for us, WHY WE WERE CREATED, if we will just keep our eyes on him instead of coveting what we don’t have.
There is only one we should be comparing ourselves to and that is Jesus Christ. The perfect, sinless lamb of God.
[Craig Groeschel shares a lighthearted account of the constant comparison between the disciples Peter and John and Jesus rebuke of their behavior. John points out in his retelling of the events of Jesus resurrection that HE ran faster than Peter to reach the tomb first. The joke is on John though because for 2,000 years people have been retelling these events and pointing out how silly it was of John to include his running talents in the documentation of the resurrection.]
Proverbs 30:8-9
Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
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