Comparing

“If you ever think you’re too small to be effective, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.”

Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop)

Jealousy and resentment are carnivorous; they’ll eat you alive if you let them.

The time to deal with jealousy is when you notice yourself keeping score with what others have.

Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other’s business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival. One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, “I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?” The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, “Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!” (Anon)

“When the eagle flies the parrots begin to jabber.”

Winston Churchill

Be comfortable with who you are. You are unique. Enjoy your individuality, your uniqueness and don’t continually be comparing yourselves to others. They are themselves, you are you. People who are always comparing are left feeling like the two cows reading the sign-writing on the side of the milk truck: Pasteurised, Homogenised, Semi & Full Skimmed, Flavoured Milks with Added Vitamins. – One cow looked at the other and said, “It kind of makes you feel rather inadequate, doesn’t it?”

‘A Creed To Live By’

Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself to others;
It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Don’t set your goals by what others deem important;
Only you know what is best for you.
Don’t take for granted the things that are closest to your heart;
Cling to them as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless.
Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or the future;
By living your life one day at a time you live all the days of your life.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give;
Nothing is really over, until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect;
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.
Don’t be afraid to encounter risks;
It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find;
The quickest way to receive love is to give love;
The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly;
And the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don’t dismiss your dreams;
To be without dreams is to be without hope;
To be without hope is to be without purpose.
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been
But also where you are going.
Life is not a race but a journey to be savoured all the way.

by Naneve Sims

Imagine a competition to jump across the English Channel. The first competitor, a 70-year old alcoholic, manages three feet. His rival, a 20-year old decathlon champion, manages 25 feet; he is vastly superior to his fellow competitor. But this difference pales into insignificance compared with the 22 miles they would need to jump to get all the way across! God’s ‘goodness standard’ is Jesus Christ. Compared with him the very best of us fails abysmally.

Stephen Gaukroger

Stephen Gaukroger, It Makes Sense, p.108

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.

Galatians 6:4

“Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It’s cheaper!”

– Quentin Crisp (1908-1999)

CONFESSION

Understanding your uniqueness, and your own gifts and talents frees you from the need to measure yourself by the runner in the next lane.

“If we ever know the feeling of being rather pleased when we hear something unpleasant about another, that is the wrong spirit.”

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1898-1981), Christian minister and theologian