We as human beings are very good at a game that I like to call the comparison game. We compare ourselves to others all the time and desire to have qualities that they have. I remember desperately wanting straight hair growing up. I didn’t have the luxury of a hair straightener back then. My hair is naturally curly and thick and I would always desire to have the type of hair that my best friend at the time had: straight, silky smooth black hair. It was funny though because one day while we were playing during lunch-time she confessed that she wanted to have hair like mine which made me question her sanity at the time.
But looking back, I realised that we will always find fault with what we have and desire to have what others have because we think that the grass is greener on the other side. But thank the Lord that I found out that the grass is not greener on the other side, it’s just different. Different soil, different flowers AND different colours. See, I believe that we are each born with something amazing and our live’s experiences and environments build us up and cultivate us into eventually becoming the best version of ourselves, and when we allow our differences to shine through, they tell a beautiful story. We all have things that we wish that we can change but our differences make us desirable. Haha! It’s sounds like a messed up cycle but it really is the truth. Tilt your focus to see yourself as authentic instead of pathetic.
To this day, I still don’t know why we do this – compare ourselves to others – and don’t fool yourself, I’m sure that you have done this before, but what I do know is that comparing ourselves to others is such a waste of precious time. Yes, you can go to all the trouble of trying to change your appearance or personality to what someone else has but isn’t that so tedious? I am not saying that you shouldn’t want to improve yourself. But for lack of better term, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Rather spend that time to become the best version of yourself. You are who you are for a reason and without you, there is sure to be a lack somewhere.
God took out a lot of “time” and “effort” to design and make you – I place time and effort in parentheses because God is not affected by time and effort is not the same for him. He made man with one huff of His breath and by the dust of the Earth and to Him, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. But that is a topic for another day, my point is that when we look at the scripture, God is very particular and detailed about how He created us:
Psalm 139
1 You have searched me,
Lord, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you,
Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
(And…)
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Augustine of Hippo made a brilliant statement that I feel is fitting for today.
“People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas,
at the long course of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars,
and yet they pass by themselves
without wondering. ”
― Augustine of Hippo
Do not overlook yourself. Do not think of yourself as less than or unworthy. Your many intricacies were planned and perfected by God Himself. When we desire to have what others have, we lose the opportunity to be powerfully authentic. I really believe that if every person just stood firm and wholeheartedly decided to be themselves, the world would be a more freeing environment to live in.
Here’s a statement to dwell on:
There is nobody on this planet that is like you: nobody with your same soul, mind and spirit.
What are you going to do with this power?
