Comparison

My family and I spent the weekend decorating our house and our yard for Christmas. It was a full weekend job.

As we decorated the kids and I talked about Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Then it happened.

I thought, I wish I was like Mary. She just believed what the angel told her. I bet she never doubted. I bet she never complained once about her pregnancy or precarious situation.

We don’t know much about what Mary felt or faced during those nine months she carried the God-man in her womb. It is easy on this side of things to think she was near perfect. The more I thought about Mary the more I realized she was human and a woman, an unmarried pregnant woman. A woman who said yes to God, but didn’t know exactly what that yes would mean. I bet she had doubts along the way. Doubts about whether she heard God right. Fears about her future, the future of the God-babe in her womb. Would Joseph believe her or would he accuse her of adultery?

Could it be that all those women we meet in the world are in the same situation? They don’t have it all together. They may have a nice car and a great house, but maybe their family is falling apart. Maybe she is unorganized and forgetful. Perhaps behind her beautiful clothes and stunning jewelry there is huge debt. Maybe she keeps her house spotless, but doesn’t have a relationship with her kids.

When we “wish we were like _______” we only see the good things in their lives. We only see what we think is a strong faith, but we don’t see the doubting days. We see the perfect family smiling in the picture without knowing with is going on in the home.

There are two problems with wishing we were like _______:

1. What we think we know is unrealistic. We think these women have it all and are perfect, but they are human.

2. When we wish who we are away we are wishing away who God made us to be.

God made you to be you. You are enough, beautiful, and loved. He made you and He does not make mistakes. So stop comparing yourself to the picture of perfection you believe exists. Instead remember who you are in God’s eyes. You are special, beautiful, loved, and enough because He made you.

I showed you the pretty pictures of my decorated house. Now do you want to see how we did it? We did it because we didn’t wash dishes most of the weekend. Yep…Check this out…

And I don’t even have a good place to set the flowers my husband got me for our anniversary.

Just for reference, I don’t have it all together. But God loves me, He made me and in Him I am enough. So are you.