Compared to Who?

Do you have a guilty pleasure? You know, something you spend your time doing when there are a hundred more productive and meaningful things to be doing with you time? I do: the PBS’s Masterpiece Theater period dramas. I’m giving you the long, proper name only because it sounds so much better than calling them what they are - English soaps.

Sure, I try to justify the time commitment by saying they teach me about history. But the truth is I am fascinated by their accents, their clothes, and their customs. Oh, and the romance. Of course, I love the romance.

I’ve went from Downton Abbey to Poldark and now to Victoria. (I also watched The Crown somewhere in between.) I’ve become fascinated and intrigued by how their lives were so much more laborious, yet so much simpler. They worked hard. There was no hot water coming from pipes right to their kitchens or bathrooms. There was no modern-day equipment to work their land or carry goods across the country-side.

There also were no radios, televisions or computers. No social media by which to measure their standard of living, pocketbook, waist size or success. Of course, comparisons still occurred. They just had fewer people to compare themselves with than we do today.

Today we have endless opportunities to compare ourselves, our kids, our homes, our talents and decide we don’t measure up. We always find someone with more and better. And in doing so, we diminish the good gifts God has given US!

Sometimes less is more. Not all knowledge is power. Sometimes knowing too much about others’ lives and blessings can cause us to be bitter with God - as if His blessings for us aren’t enough. Have you ever considered this? That when we look at others’ blessings, compare them to ours and feel discontent, we are really telling God that His provision for us isn’t good enough.

My heart is heavy because this struggle is real for me. It grieves me to admit how I want to be beautiful and young like Jennifer Anniston, how I want to run fast like Jenny Simpson, how I want to teach and write like Beth Moore or Lysa Terkheurst. But God wants me to simply enjoy being me.

Will you join me today in praying that we can all “be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we know we don’t have to conform to the patterns of this world.” Romans 12:2 God has blessed each of us with what’s necessary to achieve the purposes He’s set before us. We just might need to spend more time reminding ourselves of this instead of comparing ourselves to others.