Comparison

Comparing yourself to others is being unkind to yourself

“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel”

~Steve Furtick

 

 

When I was a young girl, I remember sitting in church and admiring a young man. He was kind, handsome and seemed to have it all together. I remember admiring his family, who were always kind to me and seemed so happy. I assumed that their lives must be perfect. I remember wishing that my family could be like theirs.

 

One day, we received a phone call with devastating news. That lovely young man that I had so admired had killed himself. It stunned everyone in my family. It shocked everyone in my church. And it shook me to the core. Partially, because I was young, and this was one of the first people that I knew who died. And, it was also the first person that I ever knew that committed suicide. Unfortunately, over the years, I have known many others who were seeking to end their pain on this Earth.

 

No matter how perfect someone’s appearance is, no matter how wonderful their marriage seems, or how amazing their life shows on the surface, every person has problems. And, no person has everything figured out. Too many times we look at the outside and assume that the image of perfection is real. We look at a post on social media and think that our life is lacking. We see another person and wish our life was like theirs. But these things are simply illusions.

 

When you start to compare your life to someone else’s, remember that every person carries pain. No one is ever happy all of the time. And we all have immense burdens to carry sometimes. We just don’t see from the outside what another person is dealing with because we all put our best image out into the world. This world is full of struggles. Our lives are filled with problems. And no one has a perfect life. Be kind to yourself. The kindest thing that you can do is to stop comparing yourself and your life to someone else’s.