The danger of comparison

In college, we had the quote taped to the bathroom mirror we 6 girls shared:

Comparison is the thief of joy.

How often do you find yourself scrolling through social media with comparisons scrolling equally fast through your mind? It happens to all of us at times. After all, social media is our virtual connection with society – and in any social situation, there lies the possibility of comparing yourself to someone else. It’s kind of sad how these things that’re meant to connect us and bring us together (i.e. Facebook) can actually drive rifts into our interactions. This can start some icky negative thought patterns – whether we find ourselves feeling poorly about ourselves or getting too prideful. No matter how you shake it, comparison gets harmful pretty quickly.

A blogger I really admire recently touched on the topic “When things don’t look like you think they should.” “Contentment” is my word for 2015 and oh, being content can be such a struggle! I talked more about that here. It is hard to push past feelings of “I wish my life were like this…” or “I want that life stage now…” So, what do we do when we spend time looking at others’ lives, and then find ours supposedly paling in comparison? We remember this:

While it’s okay to enjoy outings and celebrations and beautiful photography that captures life well…and while it’s okay to share your happinesses with others and relish in others’ joys…

Remember that our lives do not need to be perfectly styled, full of energy and constant adventure, late nights out, or expensive clothing. They do not need to be enviable or Pinterest-worthy! (How many times have you scrolled through Pinterest’s boards about material things and went away feeling a bit down?) Our lives are to be a reflection of our love for Christ! We are to be living in gratitude for what He has done for us – and in light of what our God has accomplished for us, we have all that we need! Let’s bring Him glory – bring Him glory on days when we’re utterly exhausted, days when we’re feeling weak and overwhelmed, even on those bad hair days. In fact, our God’s strength can shine brightest in our weakness! We do not have to be perfectly put together to live a life of worship. 

How do you turn your thoughts away from comparison? What do you focus on instead?

love-hannah-bee-jgp

 

 

8 Comments

  1. When I was little and would say something negative, my mom would make me sit down and say 5 positive things to make up for it. Now that I’m grown up I really see how sweet that concept is, and it’s something I’ve been doing when I start to feel feelings of discontentment because I’m comparing my life to others. Whenever I feel jealousy or something like that, I remind myself of 5 things that make MY life wonderful at this time.

  2. It is so easy to compare ourselves to others. I hate it and have written blog posts about it too. I wish it wasn’t that way, but I do feel like it’s that way with the culture we are in and with the importance of social media. Life isn’t perfect, so I don’t get why people try to portray it that way. I don’t get the fully styled Instagram feeds or telling people how great things are. I like that life is a little messy – the mess is the best part to me.

    1. You have such a good point, Kristyn! While “staging photos” is so fun, it’s not great to lose the authentic feel of life too! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  4. Love it! I’ve found myself coming to the end of the month thinking I’ve done nothing of worth because I have no pretty pictures to show, but that’s totally not true. Thanks for sharing!

    1. And thank you for stopping by, Kristin! 🙂 There is so much worthwhile stuff we do each day – it just doesn’t always get documented with a picture!

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