No More Comparisons: Embrace Your Uniqueness

 A few days ago, I spoke with a young lady who struggles with constantly comparing herself to others.  Because she feels that her life isn’t what society tells her it should be at her age, she looks at the life of her peers who appear to have it all together and are doing well, and it causes her to believe that her life doesn’t hold a candle next to theirs.  Based on what she sees in other women around her, and in mainstream media, she doesn’t think she’s pretty, smart, accomplished, fashionable, or gifted enough to say that there’s anything special about her life. 

My heart ached as I listened to my acquaintance criticize herself. I wanted to reach through the phone and shake her until all of those self-demeaning thoughts flew out of her head, so I could bag them up and send them to the trash pile.  Instead, I extended my heart, hugged her compassionately with words from the Lord, and encouraged her by sharing that I knew exactly how she felt.

I once walked in her shoes, feeling inadequate and inferior.  I compared myself to every woman I believed had a better life than mine, and in my eyes, everything about me enormously paled in comparison to those around me.

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Good & Bad: God Loves You Through It All

Gospel singer J. Moss has a popular song out right now that says, “You loved me through my good.  You loved me through my bad.  You didn’t erase my future because of my past. I’m glad you loved me through my good and my bad.”

That’s pretty much all the song says, and I must admit that when I first heard it, I really wasn’t a fan.  But the more I listened to it, the more it began to grow on me.  It’s a simple song, but the lyrics have such powerful meaning.  One line in particular stands out to me, and always prompts a Thank You, Jesus to flow out of my mouth from the depths of my heart.  That one, nine-word line that says, “You didn’t erase my future because of my past” plays over and over in my spirit, and moves me to a place of worship and thanksgiving.

The fact that my past has no power over my future is good news to me.  According to yesterday, I don’t deserve anything good in my life; but to know that I am still destined to have a promising future despite the blatant recklessness in my past further reveals the immeasurable extent of God’s unconditional love, mercy, and grace.

You know, the past has a way of following you like a shadow, causing you to think that it will be with you wherever you go and you’ll never be able to escape it.  The guilt, shame, and pain associated with it hover over you like a heavy, dark cloud, and dim your view of a brighter tomorrow. 

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The Battle for Your Mind

Lately, I’ve found myself in a bit of a battle with the enemy.  He has been trying to reclaim a space that he no longer has possession of – my mind.  I evicted him a couple of years ago, and for some reason he thinks he can just come back and set up homestead again. 

It seems that the more I submit myself to the Lord and the plans He has for my life, here comes that old raggedy devil trying to throw a monkey wrench into the works.  Well I’m not having it.

Our relationship is over, and the space he once occupied in my mind has been filled with soundness.  I’m free, and I intend to remain that way.

My mind used to be the devil’s playground; he’d get in there and play all kinds of games.  All of the lies and crazy thoughts he planted in my mind had me all out of sorts.  For years, I was so mentally unstable, going through life in a daze because I couldn’t think straight.  My mind was not sound at all.  And because my psyche was under the enemy’s influence, my life, in turn, was in complete disarray. 

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