Not Special

Growing up I was the bratty little sister who followed my older sister and her friends around everywhere.  I so desperately wanted to be like her.  She had long blonde hair, all the cool friends and it seemed like all the fun.  She was stunning.  I was the awkward red head with freckles everywhere, a little overweight and I thought I was the one who was easily forgettable.  I would listen to her music, watch the shows she wanted and hang on her every word.  Very quickly I lost my own identity.  I lost myself in the comparison game. 

I thought that I had to be like her in order for anyone to find me special or interesting, and still to this day when we see each other I catch myself sucking in my stomach, scrutinizing over my wardrobe and feeling like I am not good enough.  But recently something interesting happened.  My sister told me that she had been jealous of me for years.

I suddenly realized how dumb we had both been.  She had been comparing herself to me just like I had been comparing myself to her.  Each of us were allowing comparison to steal our joy and our contentment in who God had created us to be.  God had a design for me from before I was even conceived in my mother’s womb.  He designed every freckle, every red hair, every imperfection that I see in the mirror, God sees as a masterpiece and he planned it that way for a purpose.

Most of my life I have struggled off and on with depression, most of it stemming from feelings of not being good enough or that I am a failure.  Then one day a friend looked at me and told me “God doesn’t make junk!”

God only made one you and one me.  We are each unique.  I could never see something the same as the person next to me because we are different.  We are each specially designed by God’s hand, and God doesn’t make junk.

Everything about you makes you special.  Your mind, your voice, your talents, your abilities, your story, and the list goes on and on…But instead we focus on our shortcomings, the talents and achievements of others, and we begin to lose ourselves.  We turn our focus to everything that we are not.   

In the devotional “My Name is Victorious” by Lori Wilhite she says: “A flower doesn’t compare itself with the flowers around it.  It just blooms.  This is God’s ultimate design for us.  Be like the flower that can bloom and thrive and be beautiful alongside other flowers that are blooming and thriving and being beautiful.”

Wouldn’t that be amazing!  As Christians if we could stop the comparison game and just bloom alongside each other.  Just because someone else is doing well it does not diminish you and it does not mean that you are less than or less talented than anyone else.  You have not been called to be like others, you have been called to be like Jesus.  So now is the time to stop comparing ourselves to those around us and focus our thoughts and energy on the one who calls us by name.  The one who knows every hair on our heads, the one who calls us special, Jesus.

PRAYER:

Father, we get so caught up in comparisons and feeling like we are not enough.  Help us to find peace in who you have designed us to be.  When we are faced with moments of feeling like we are not special, remind us that we are so loved that you sent your son to die for us. 

Father bring us contentment with what you have blessed our lives with. When we get caught in the comparison trap, open our eyes and our hearts and let us find peace in you.