comparison kills contentment.

if you're a human, especially female, you struggle with comparison.  let's cut to the chase and put it as simply as possible.  i'm all about simple.  comparison kills contentment.  period.  


comparison goes a lot like this... when you look at others who have more, you want what they have... when you look at others who have less you feel guilty for having more.   there will always be people that have more than you and there will always be people that have less than you.  i could go through countless examples of comparisons but i think we all know what i'm talking about and i'm sure you are thinking of instances when you've thought, "wow, if only... {fill in the blank}."  i have a million "if only's."  it's shameful.  


this prescription for contentment (i've shared it countless times in the past) that i read several months ago in linda dillow's, calm my anxious heart, is very helpful:

-never allow yourself to complain about anything - not even the weather.

-never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.

-never compare your lot with another's.

-never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.

-never dwell on tomorrow - remember that tomorrow is God's, not ours.

i think comparison gets really ugly (not that it's ever pretty) when we start comparing our lot in life of trials and hardships.  we can think of those who've gone through what might seemingly be little and then we can think of other's who have gone through a ton and then some.  then we like to decide where we fit in the spectrum.  and then we like to feel sorry for ourselves.


most of all, i'm always reminded that true contentment is found only in Christ and His provision of grace.  if i am really going to enjoy life, then my hope should rest not in this life but in the life to come.  and obviously, for as long as we walk on this earth, trials are going to come our way.  after all, God, in His divine providence gives us hardships - some smaller and some big or really big - at different points in life to make us all the more desirous of our home in Heaven.

for the sake of Christ, then, i am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. for  when i am weak, then i am strong. - 2 corinthians 12:10

 not that i am speaking of being in need, for i have learned in whatever situation i am to be content. - philippians 4:11

but  if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. - 1 timothy 6:8