Recently, I was scrolling through Instagram and I found myself becoming slightly more despondent, the more I scrolled. Instead of putting my phone away and focusing on something more productive, I kept on scrolling; allowing myself to just wallow in these destructive feelings. And then I asked myself a question that made me pause, I was looking at a picture of a girl with her make-up perfectly done, hair looking fly and outfit on point– oh and did I mention that her body was flawless? Anyway, I looked at this picture and asked myself,
“How do I compete with this?”
And as if there were two people inhabiting my mind (which I know is low-key not normal but let’s just go with it), I answered myself and asked a question in return,
“Since when did life become a competition and what is the prize?”
But let’s be honest; life has become somewhat of a competition because of social media.
We see so many people sharing so many achievements, experiences and beauty and that is all great but why does it sometimes make us feel like we are behind or not good enough?
Y’all know that I have to bring the word in from time to time and that whole-IG-scroll-question experience reminded me of a portion of scripture that I love; let me share it with you:
“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.”
GALATIANS 5:7-8
The thing that I love about the word of God is that we can apply it to everything that we go through and while I know for a fact that Apostle Paul was not referring to Instagram when he wrote this letter to the Galatian church, I do know that we can apply the Word to this specific topic, because sometimes the pressure of pop culture, friends, family, church and even yourself can bring you to this point where the Holy Spirit nudges you slightly and says,
“Hey, you were doing so well. Who told you that you were not enough?”
And there are many answers to that question and the reality is that there will always be people who tell you that you’re not good enough or that your way of doing things is wrong. And just like Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him, we gotta do what Jesus did and tell him to get his deed done because He had a purpose to fulfil (there’s more to that later).
I think that in this day and age, it’s not about ignoring those people but it’s about accepting the criticism and making the conscious decision to walk forward as the person that God called you to be, and that as long as you are in HIS will, you will be okay.
There is so much more to this that I would like to share and I will in due time but for now, know this:
It’s not healthy competition when you leave feeling less than or inadequate. What imaginary competitions are you entering yourself into?
Know your worth and know that the only approval that you really need to seek is God’s – and even that is freely given.
