Comparison is the thief of joy

I was so excited – finally getting on a plane after two years – as we drove towards the airport, I spotted a church sign that read “Comparison is the thief of joy.” These words hit me – “how true “and I laughed out loud – because at that moment I was debating whether my black hoody tracksuit would be suitable on the plane, and I wondered what others would be wearing. I felt sure I hadn’t read these words in the Bible – so I googled it – and to my surprise found that it was one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s sayings.

The Bible also teaches that we should run our own race and we shouldn’t compare ourselves with each other. But being slightly competitive I naturally get sucked into other people’s lives, via social media, television and the world in general – and I know I will always find someone better than me or less effective than me- either way it’s not healthy as I always become discouraged or prideful. Out of the 100 billion people who have lived and died on this planet each was created differently, as Jesus says we are each ‘fearfully and wonderfully made ‘- I should be overjoyed that there is only one of me, I am one of a kind – unique, quirky and rare. As the airport approached, I remembered an embarrassing gym incident that gave me the same wakeup call on the pitfalls of comparison-I was running on the tread mill and was watching a lady in front of me “wow I wouldn’t have worn that” and suddenly I tripped and flew backwards of the machine and landed face down. Lesson learnt.!! By the time I got to the airport check in desk I was a new woman with a new attitude – no thief was going to steal my joy!