Sometimes I get restless. When I am in that place of restlessness I become anxious and my judgment on the real or perceived becomes clouded. That quickly comes to the place of comparison, self doubt and discontentment. The real joy that my life is filled with in abundance quickly gets overshadowed. If I’m being honest, I’ll also say that if that brooding is left long enough it’s also when God and I wrestle.
As a woman of faith it can be embarrassing to admit this human side of me.
I remember well my time as a young mom with my two oldest children and feeling well within the muck of busy mom life while questioning most every mothering decision I made. During that season I saw supermom ladies at every turn who juggled so many things along with more children than myself. They did everything better than me whether it was working full time, volunteering and doing things for others, mastering their time, being more creative, more loving, but mostly and surely, more desirable to others and God because they exuded perfection.
Now that I’m on the other side with more children, more mothering years under my belt and approaching mid-life, I realize that none of that was necessarily true. I was comparing myself to others who were not at the same season of life as I was back then. I may be just a bit more quick to realize now that God puts these people in my surroundings not as comparisons, but as witnesses and role models to urge me on to my own greatness in Him. I am called to be the mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend to the people who surround me in my circle. I was not meant to be these things to a different set of people and I cannot compare to how well someone else does it. Is my fulfillment of God’s plan for me being fully lived out? How am I serving Him in serving others? This is my call. When I take my human blinders off and lose sight of God, joy is stolen away and resentment creeps in my heart.
Let’s be kind to one another. Let’s be gentle with ourselves. Challenge one another and ourselves, absolutely! Compare and guilt ourselves with real or imagined standards that lead to discontentment, banish them at the door. God called you to be you with the life He has called only you to live. Your vocation, your job, your unique gifts and abilities are there because of choices and paths you followed to hopefully pursue God’s call on your heart. Let’s amaze Him with the gift of ourselves and being who he means for us to be. Perfectly imperfect, vulnerable and daily seeking the grace he lavishes upon us.
You are enough. So am I.
Remind someone of that message today. Thank someone you know and love for the witness of Christ that they are to you and others. You never know if they may be having the same doubts and struggles comparing themselves to others and feeling inferior or less than superior.
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – St. Teresa of Calcutta
Sarah Heidelberger is a wife and homeschooling mom of five who keeps her days steady with her planning and organizing skills. Read more about her on the “Meet Our Bloggers” page.