I’ve felt “behind the times” more times than I care to count. Even now, like I’m sure it is with you, I see friends and family getting something nice and new and shiny, which consequently causes me to look down melodramatically at my “whatever” and compare myself to others.

Our pastor did a sermon several years ago called “The Comparison Trap,” and, to be honest, it wasn’t something that really nudged me at the time, but it definitely planted a seed of thought that began to grow over time.

I Wish I Had THAT

I’ve since discovered how much of my life has been spent worried about how I stack up against what others have. When you unpack this and realize how many different parts of your life that this “comparison trap” actually affects, it becomes a pretty hard pill to swallow. I’ve always been self-conscious about the clothes I own because I grew up seeing all of my friends going to the stores and buying the cool new trends (Timberland boots, as an example for all the 30-somethings out there, or maybe it’s an Apple Watch or Yeezy’s(?) for the kids these days?) Man, I feel old when I say something like that! 🤣

Something Significant Instead

Other things I’ve been guilty of comparing myself with are things like my old, beat up car vs. my buddy and his brand new Jeep with all the bells and whistles, my routine of eating at home most of the time while I see Instagram food pictures from people who seem to always be out at the nice, new restaurants in town. Or, maybe this is just me, but as I’ve gotten better at prioritizing my relationship with God over other things and learned to spend more time in His word than in my Facebook feed, I catch myself being frustrated because someone knows so many more Bible verses or has more highlights in their Bible or they are reading more “Christian living” books than I am. What’s worse is that they’re doing all of this AND they are caught up on Stranger Things or whatever the other cool shows are this year.

You can see all the many ways I could continue to go with this, so in an effort to keep this post on the shorter side, I just want to say that you’re not alone. I recognize that I am not alone. I know that we all have things that we could replace in our daily routine with more time with God, Bible reading, prayer, you name it,…

The awesome part about trading time spent on social media/email/television/whatever, for time spent with God/reading the Bible/reading a personal growth book/whatever, is that you actually get practical benefits from it. Sure it seems rewarding to kick back and watch three episodes of Glee (not this guy!) or Grey’s Anatomy.

What’s The Priority?

I want you to come up with an answer to the following question before next week: Are you on this planet simply to eat, sleep, work, have a night out with friends, a vacation every year and a big movie collection OR do you have this desire inside you to be better each day than you were the day before and to help the people you care most about accomplish what they want in their life? Think about the impact if we could just get this one thing right. Okay, maybe not even getting it right, but getting better at it!

Life’s too precious and we’re too capable to live it for ourselves, so whether you live your life for God or Buddha or Taylor Swift, don’t just let it slip away. Be proactive. Be on the lookout for opportunities to grow and be better and help others!

Which leaves us with the question to reflect on:

What’s something that you can start doing this week to help allow God’s opinion of you to replace the inadequate or “left behind” feelings you get from comparing yourself to others?