Ever feel like you don’t have all the right pieces in your box to make your life work?
Ever feel like you don’t measure up?
Ever feel like the dumbest person in the room?
Please say I am not the only one here.
So what’s the solution?
We get information faster today than in any generation before us. It was unheard of in my grandparents’ day to have computers in our homes, much less in our pockets. It can be amazing when we are needing facts or figures, but when it comes to personal growth, that’s another story.
We often see the whitewashed, picture-perfect images posted on Pinterest or Instagram and then glance around our chaos and feel…jumbled. We don’t have the perfect (blank) that she does, or the amazing (blank), our homes aren’t (blank), our marriages and our children aren’t (blank). It is amazing how quickly we can go from content to completely inferior, right?
Case in point, I spent two days reading various blogs wondering what I am even qualified to write about. Should I even be writing? Do I have something to say? I wrote and deleted it. Wrote more and delated more. My thought process looked jigsaw puzzle and I felt a lot like the car on the left in the picture above. I imagined critics in my head, “Your website is about media…you should write about movies, books, art…where’s your niche? Who is even going to read this?”
I was frustrated and discouraged. I read all these “expert” bloggers and felt quickly inferior and wanted to throw in the towel… or rather the keyboard. But then I had a light bulb moment!
Want to know what I learned?
Let’s take a quick pause here and remind ourselves of something that we often miss. Ready? Here it is. You are enough. You were made in the image of the Father who loves you and is in awe of you. God didn’t create you to be a copy of someone else. You were made to be YOU!! God doesn’t see any blanks or inadequacies when He looks at you, only His child, His amazing creation, His masterpiece.
God didn’t make a mistake with you, and you are NOT some worthless piece of junk. Read this passage below slowly…let this speak to you.
“You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it!
How thoroughly you know me, Lord! You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something.
You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book.
Every single moment you are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought! O God, your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore!”
Psalm 139: 13-17
Take a deep breath and pause just a moment in the knowledge of how much God loves you. God cherishes you with every thought. We have to start there because getting that truth deep in your soul is foundational for the next part. Ready to go further?
You are needed. Yep…you! Your world, your family, your co-workers, the people you bump into walking about life, they need you. Not you pretending to be a photocopy of someone else but YOU. Authentically and genuinely you. You are enough!
You were put on the planet, right now, in the place you live, because the world needs you. Don’t have it all together? Me either. Laundry piled up, dishes in the sink, things still unchecked on the to-do list, welcome to the club. We still need you. We need your story, your friendship, your encouragement, we even need your scars because we might need the wisdom of how you overcame.
It’s 100% ok that your life doesn’t look like her life. It’s not supposed to! One of my favorite pieces of advice that I have ever been given is this…
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” – Dr. Seuss
God made you wonderful, on purpose, for a reason. You might need to remind yourself of that every day, every hour, or every 10 minutes.
And you wouldn’t be alone. Every woman I have ever met struggles with having a comparison mindset at times.
In fact, with the rise in social media popularity, there is now a phenomenon called FOMO. It is otherwise known as the Fear Of Missing Out. Why wasn’t I invited to the party? Why did they go to that place without me? Am I not fun enough, popular enough, good enough to be included? And those thoughts can go round and round in our minds.
Want to stop playing the comparison game? Let me help you.
- Wash your Mind! Allow God’s word and His truth to go deep into your thoughts and stand on it. Believe you are who He says you are. Write it on mirrors, on index cards for the car, add verses to your phone’s wallpaper…whereever you will see them when you need them. The YouVersion app has options to have the Bible read aloud…it’s a great option.
- Stop Listening to the Wrong Voices! The enemy would like nothing more than to get you to buy into his lies…it keeps you from living out your purpose and being effective. The enemy would love nothing more to keep you quiet and afraid. When you start believing you are who God says you are, you are becoming a powerful force to change the world!
- Be thankful! Look around your world and start being thankful for what you have and who you have in your world. Make a list of all the things you are thankful for, down to the smallest things, and watch how your perspective changes.
- Serve! Volunteer in your community or your church. Serving others is the best way to take your eyes off yourself and focus on meeting the needs of others.
- Find a Community! Connect with other people around you and share with them what God is doing in your life and the things you are learning. People need your stories, your wisdom, and they need YOU!
You, my dear, are a world changer! I am right beside you, cheering you on and here to pray for you when you need it. You are not alone on this journey! Leave me a comment below and let me know if comparing is something you struggle with and how you have overcome it. I can’t wait to hear from you!
Much love,
Kim
I do compare myself from time to time, like lots of women. I’m thankful for people like yourself to remind us that WE ARE ENOUGH and that people need us in some way. I haven’t thought of it that way but it’s true because I know I need other people to learn from too!!