I Choose Joy over Comparison

A trap we can all find ourselves falling into at one time or another is the trap of comparing ourselves to other people.  That can lead to either a feeling of pride or else inferiority, either of which can suck the joy right out of our hearts.

I just finished reading the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians.  It is about how God gives us all different personality traits and talents and that they are all equally essential to the work of the church.  The same can be said of any organization of individuals, whether it is a company, a charitable organization, a neighborhood, or even a family.
 
Some people are gifted with the art of organization.  But if we were all organizers, there would be chaos.  My friend, Kathy, is an organizer.  That’s what she does professionally.  She also organizes a birthday lunch for all the ladies in our neighborhood every month.  She makes us all feel very special on our birthdays.  But can you imagine what it would be like if we all wanted to be the organizer?  No one would know who to rely on for the lunch plans.
 
Another dear friend, Suzanne, and her daughter, Becca, make absolutely fabulous cupcakes.  They make sure that each birthday lunch ends with a yummy dessert.  But what if we were all great bakers?  We would have tons of fabulous sweets, we would all be overweight, and, with no one to organize us, we would never be able to determine where we would all meet to share those yummy goodies!  What a fat, crazy, mixed up world we would live in!

That’s why we all have different personality traits and different skills.  God expects us to use the skills He has given us and to work together with those who have other skills.  That is not to say that we should not develop new skills.  We should always be learning new things.  But we should not do so out of envy or jealousy of other people and their talents.  And we should not be so proud of our own skills or talents that we are unwilling to share our knowledge with others or feel threatened that their level of ability might one day be greater than our own.  I enjoy gardening, and one of my greatest pleasures related to that is sharing what I have learned and what I’ve grown with others.

Sometimes our skills will change.  My interests have evolved over the years, and so have my abilities.  My mother is a wonderful encourager.  She has a list of folks that she calls every day, just to let them know that she is thinking about them and that she cares for them.  She has not let her age or her physical limitations get in the way of using the talents God has given her.  I’m so glad she chooses to use her gift of encouragement rather than moping about getting old and not being able to do some of the things she used to do.  She is an inspiration to me and to many others.

So my prayer this week for myself and for you is that we would not fall into the trap of comparing ourselves with other people, that God would show us how and where He wants us to use our skills, and that others would be blessed as a result.