Preach to Yourself to Combat Comparison

I hate this one thing about myself. I struggle SO MUCH against comparing myself with other women. I’ve done a lot of work with the Lord to figure out the ins-and-outs of this annoying trait. I’ve noticed that it is not an envy thing, it’s not that I want what she has. It is more like, I cannot know where I stand unless I know where I stand against someone else. Like, what is my identity if I don’t have someone else as a measuring stick.

And, that’s super gross, right? It’s also unhealthy, wrong, and disobedient to the Lord’s best for me. It drives me actually bonkers and makes my mind extremely chatty in all the worst ways. Maybe you can relate? I think social media makes this worse, but I’m also 100% certain I’d figure out a way to still compare myself even if I didn’t have such an intimate glimpse into so many women’s lives. This is not a modern problem. This is a human problem.

And, because our brains are wired as they are (Preach to Yourself has a whole dedicated chapter to our brains!), the more we compare, the more often we’ll find ourselves comparing. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I want to give you a few mantras I use to act as antidotes to the bad news I tell yourself (which is that I just don’t measure up).

I’m running my own race. (2 Timothy 4:7, 1 Corinthians 9:24)
Don’t look left or right, keep your eyes on your own path. (Proverbs 4:25-27)
God has made my boundary lines lovely! (Psalm 16:5-6)

And, then there are a couple quotes I love so much that I keep in mind to combat the energy-sucking bad news that I’ll never measure up.

“Good for her, not for me.” -Amy Poehler
“A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”

The bad news is, as humans we’re prone to comparison. We hear the drumbeat of other’s lives, achievements, looks, praises, and on and on. But, here’s the good news…we can keep our eyes on our own paper and begin to hear more and more about God’s love for us.