Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

“They…compare themselves with themselves.” 2Co 10:12 NIV

One definition of success is: “Gaining wealth and fame.” But how much wealth do you need to be successful? How much fame? Should you pick an arbitrary target? Should you compare yourself to others? What if you have decided to devote yourself to raising children of character, or serving your church and your community? Does that mean you are less successful? No. Success is doing the best you can, with what you have, wherever you are in life. The Bible warns, “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” When you play the comparison game you are like the two cows that saw the milk truck go by with a sign, “Pasteurized, homogenized, Vitamin A added.” One cow said to the other, “Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn’t it?” God will help you be all that you can be, but He will never help you be someone else. When you focus your attention on who you aren’t by comparing yourself with someone else, you lose sight of who you need to become. Ever heard of the eighteen/forty/sixty rule? When you’re eighteen, you worry about what everybody’s thinking about you. When you’re forty, you realize that it doesn’t really matter what they think about you. When you’re sixty, it dawns on you that most of them weren’t thinking about you at all! Paul’s life changed dramatically with one question: “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Ac 9:6 NKJV). Only when you ask that question, will you discover who you are and what God’s called you to be.

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