I’m breathing OK these days. But a month ago I felt a lot like my life was a bus that had left without me. I was tired, stretched, uncomfortable in my skin. Scared of my voice and my blog because it’s scary to write what people will likely disagree with at some point. I felt like I carried all these rulers stuck uncomfortably in my back pocket for checking if I was measuring up.
I’m not sure what I was supposed to be measuring up to exactly. How to write, how to raise my kids, how to prepare supper, how to remember to unload the dishwasher. I just know that most days I wasn’t. Or more truthfully, most days I simply felt like I wasn’t. The Internet can be a very loud and shouty place about what everyone else is doing successfully.
It feels like such an embarrassing admission – the rabbit hole of comparing yourself to other people. But it can suck you in and suck the life out of you. But eventually I come out the other end and take deep breaths and remember that Jesus moved into the neighborhood and isn’t going to leave me to sort through all my garbage alone.
I wrote this last year. And this year I went looking for it again. To remember. That comparison is always a trap and I want us to escape it together. So today I think I need to sit at this desk in the corner of a {not-so-messy-as-usual} playroom and pull you aside and ask you again, “How can we be in this together instead of competing at this?”
Because I don’t ever want you to visit here and leave feeling less-than.
Comparison will rob you blind, smash in your self-image, trash your house and tar and feather your kids.
It takes what is beautiful and tears it up into tiny bits like so many shredded pieces of a painting my four-year-old tore up two nights ago.
He loves to paint. He loves the textures, the water, the color, choosing the sheet of paper. He spends time and pours his imagination into all that wet collage of color. But show him what someone else is doing; add a long day and a quick temper into the mix, and he bursts into a fiery, four-year-old iconoclast.
Everything broken now.
And once he’d torn the paper in half he collapsed into a small version of himself and cupped dimpled hands around his short, tender hair and cried like he’d lost his best friend.
Comparison will eat at the heart of everything you love the most.
Love to write? Comparison will whisper it’s pointless when nobody reads your blog anyway. That your stories are lame and who cares what happened to a girl growing up once upon a time in South Africa any way?
Love to make art? Comparison will tell you that without a degree, a gallery, a show, an esty shop you’re a fake.
Love to cook? Comparison will tell you that your pots and pans would shame Julia Childs and desecrate her recipes.
Love to grow a business, build a brand, market your mojo? Comparison will tell you that you should have done it differently, done it like her, done it years ago to be any success at all.
Comparison drives up to take that dream we love, that calling we’re following, that friendship we cherish and wrench it away from us and grind it up into so much dirt and speckled gravel under irreverent tires.
Victims of comparison drive-bys litter the Internet.
There are virtual warehouses of new ways we can find to covet our neighbor’s house, family and life these days.
Nothing is as terrifying as thinking you don’t matter because you can’t do it like her.
But if we were to look down, look away from what we wish we had. If we would glance back at where we are, we might see in order to have rubbernecked so hard and so far we’ve been standing with high heels ground down on top of the hand painted, one-of-a-kind life art crafted for us.
For you.
For me.
We are each of us uniques.
A fingerprint swirl of utterly and totally incomparable. You are.
I’m writing this because I need to remember. Because when I forget and compare, parts of me wilt and fear takes bites out of my dreams.
I need to remember who I am. Just me.
There’s a Starbucks Frappuccino – the kind you can buy in a bottle at the grocery store – next to me as I type this. A pair of earphone buds because I love watching movies on my laptop late at night. And there’s a collection of left over toys behind me because my daughter plays alongside me as I work. My hair is having an in between kind of day and I’m wearing my favorite blue and black print shirt – the one with longish sleeves that flatter the parts of my arms I’m most self conscious about. My toenails are bright red and chipping.
Zoe is asleep and our rock star baby sitter is down the hall loving on my laundry room.
Two boys are off at school and there’s a good man who will come home to all of us tonight. I’m working on a presentation for the Jumping Tandem conference that I have still barely started and I’ll be giving in less than a month. I have a book floating in the back of my head and a dream of bringing thousands of women together again in real life.
There’s also an equal mix of temper tantrums, worry, bills and a new stain on our just-cleaned-carpet. There’s the hamster that annoys me with his constant whirring on the wheel and the dishwasher that comes off the rails. There’s messy days and beautiful days and homesick-for-South Africa days and days that I can barely remember.
This is my art.
This is my life.
This is my fingerprint.
I can never capture all of it on this blog. I can only show you glimpses. Don’t waste even a moment of your own beautiful life comparing it to mine. And I’ll promise to return the favor.
Rejoice.
Let’s choose to rejoice with one another.
Let’s not trample what we’ve been given in order to get to what we wish we’d got.
No girls, let’s dance. Right where we’re at.
Oh, I needed to read this. I just finished up a whole comparison “moment” before I hopped over here. Right where God meant for me to come. Thank you for your words.
Steph
Oh sister, thank you for this. Thank you for your heart, so readily spilled out on white screen, for sisters to soak in, as we float through this mothering life of ours, together. (or in some cases, on some days, we’re dragged through!)
Janelle Marie
Thank you, thank you, a million times. Every time I read one of your posts, especially like this one, it heals some little broken piece of my soul and gives me hope that I’m doing just fine, even if I’m not living up to my own (ridiculous) expectations.
Wonderful words, Lisa Jo. Thanks so much!
Jeanette
Yes. Truth. Thank you for this–for your honesty and the truth spoken and the reminder.
A simple thank-you seems like not enough, but thank you! You are beautiful to me in your vulnerability and I appreciate your bravery and openness. Please keep failing and writing about it. Please share your joys too. It’s full of hope and and the realness of life. Women need this kind of reality instead of all that other stuff bombarding us.
Oh, how I needed this now. You are a gift to my heart. Thank you.
I needed to hear this too. I just recently went through a comparison spell. My husband told me that what I see on the internet isn’t the whole picture. Thanks for sharing a very real and heart felt post.
Thank you so much for the encouragement.
Thank you for writing. Thank you for being such an inspiration. Thank you for making me want to be a better person. I am not comparing, the weight that is lifted from me from comparing allows me room to breathe and grow as a mom, a sister, a daughter, a friend, and most of all as just me.
SO BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN! Thank you for your transparency with us, your love for us, your enthusiasm and tenacity for Jesus and His call on your life. As the wife of a pastor, I, too often feel myself comparing my life to the life of others. And you nailed it when you said, ‘Let’s not trample what we’ve been given in order to get what we wish we’d got.’ Thanks Jesus-sister, for helping to show us The Way. Blessings.
Thank you for sharing what I am thinking and feeling. So glad to have found your blog; it lifts me up and helps me know that I am not alone with me thoughts and demons:)
Bless your heart. And thank you. I’ve felt this. I’ve fought it in the past, and yet I’ve felt it very recently, even this week. Your words minister to my heart, as always. Love you.
Sharing what I wrote when I shared this post on facebook this morning.
Loved this post: I have learned this one over the last few years…for the most part I have stopped comparing…though it creeps in every so often. But most days it is the simple that brings me the most joy…even when it is a spring break home with kids, tackling projects, cooking 3 meals a day and I ran the dishwasher at least 2x a day…I used to find every reason to escape this when my husband walked through the door…but now I see it as a gift and I rejoice in this rhythm…and remember it may not be my friend’s rhythm or the girl next door’s rhythm. For me though it sings Joy!
I’m reading this post at 5ish am. The baby is wide awake, and I was feeling a little sorry for myself. Thank you for helping me shift my perspective before the rest of the household wakes up. I so appreciate your blog. It helps keep me going and doing what the Father needs me to do – day in, and day out.
This beautifully written post contains so many truths. Thank you for sharing so honestly and openly. We each have our own unique life, gifts and viewpoint. If sharing benefits and inspires us that’s wonderful, but if it makes us compare ourselves and our lives to others it is a sure route to misery. It is our uniqueness that makes each and every one of us so very special.
Oh, I feel this, Lisa Jo. I think maybe God designed us with this desire to measure up, so we would long to measure up to His perfection and glory. And we settle for lesser things, we settle for longing for her writing style, her good looks, her parenting skills, her clean house. And Jesus redeemed all of that in-between space, that measuring-up space, when He died. And isn’t this Christian life just a struggle to realize that? To realize we are free to live in Him? I love your open heart, your desire for us all to seek Him in unity. I’m praying that you will feel the power of the resurrection, that you will know the peace of abiding in Him and bear good fruit for Him. xoxo
So needed to hear this today. I have been sitting in front of an empty screen struggling to put my heart on a page this morning. Thinking all those thoughts that strangle the words that usually flow. Sometimes all we need to hear is “me too” and I am so blessed by your encouragement. Thank you friend.
Absolutely love, love, love your blog, Lisa. Even though I’m a 70-something grandma, comparison never seems to leave me alone. Keep doing what you are doing – living life and writing about it. Love your everyday honesty!
Powerful words today that I so needed to hear. Thank you for sharing such wise words. Your corner of the Internet is a breath of fresh, honest, soul healing air.
I really enjoyed this read today! TY!♥ shared in on my page too! Denise’s Window Box!
I don’t think there are words adequate enough to express how much I needed to read this post. Just, yes. Comparison takes our eyes of the plans God has for US, and places our focus squarely on His plans for someone else. How can we fulfill OUR own calling if we’re busy coveting God’s doing in someone else’s life? I think you might need to repeat this post at least once a year.
Or once a month. ;)
Thanks for the reminder.
“Love to write? Comparison will whisper it’s pointless when nobody reads your blog anyway. That your stories are lame and who cares what happened to a girl” … who used to be this and used to be that and now does … not much that is very interesting and so she hasn’t written or posted on her blog in months now… and yet strangely still refers to herself as a blogger…
“Love to make art? Comparison will tell you that without a degree, a gallery, a show, an esty shop you’re a fake.” YUP.
I find myself listening to that poisonous comparing voice and it talks me out of sitting at my computer and makes me feel guilty when I do because I’m “wasting my time cause no one is going to read it anyway”.
Why is it so stinkin’ hard to stop listening to that voice of comparison?
God rocks and so do you!
Those nasty no-see’ums were plaguing me for quite some time.
“What’s the point Lord!? My writing, my art work- I’ll never…. so many others have…. without the resources to get my website up and running again how/how/how…”
“The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance…You make known to me the path of life…in your presence…at your right hand…” Psalm 16:7-11
Thank you for reminding me that our God sees each of us-me as “the apple of [His] eye. Psalm 17:8
“Man’s chief end is to glorify god and to enjoy him forever.”
Ramona Furst
I love your heart. Keep focused on Jesus… nothing else matters….
I’ve been avoiding my blog lately for these exact reasons. Not feeling good enough. Not wanting to share my inadequacies. You line it up nicely. I think I’ll get back to my blog now. As always, your writing is uplifting and inspiring. You are truly blessed in your ability to do this for other women.
Thought I was over comparisons until I red this. WOW! That blog part bit me. Thanks for sharing.
This is how I know that God is at work in my heart because I have not always felt so…I can read this and even though I admire your writing to the moon and back I know I still could sit down eye to eye with you and say, I’m me and you’re you and we’re just writing our stories side by side and all kinds of people read them and maybe more read your words but we are both unique and God is working uniquely through our writing. I want to be the most “me” writer on the internet because I know someone needs my words. Maybe not millions, but someone and for that it is worth it. It is worth it even if that someone is just me.
I so relate to this in a hundred ways and I’m so glad that we can be honest and pile all our ugly insecurities up together and say they don’t amount to a hill of beans when God is steering this ship. Oh and I think you rock that plaid shirt like no other. I’m wearing my old farmer’s market tee, my striped yellow cardigan and a pair of corduroys- joy!
Amen!
Thank-you. Thank-you.
I find choosing Joy over despair at all the ways I suspect I don’t “measure up” is very helpful.
Love this today!! Thanks for being open and I want to borrow your sitter!
Thank you for this post. Just last week someone accused me of altering photos on my blog. (still wondering what I would gain by doing so. The photo was of tomatoes for Pete’s sake!). My point is that their comment really hurt. Negativity is everywhere these days. Comparison is part of that negative cycle. It was only after I let their words hurt me that I realized I had made the wrong choice. God knows my heart. He knows why I blog and He will sustain me.
I smiled only because I also have a photo of tomatoes on my blog as well!!! So far I have not had anyone complain. I am amazed and petrified daily of those people who want to criticize the smalles things such as photos of tomatoes. Sending you hugs!!
Beautiful! I love the way you write. I have been through comparison days with my blog – a year of fighting different temptations, all having to do with writing. I think I’m out of the tunnel now, and it’s a beautiful place to be!
This timing is so perfect. This weekend I’m having a brunch at my little townhome. Most of the ladies have never been there and I’ve been feeling the anxiety build that it won’t be clean enough or nice enough or the decor won’t be fancy enough. I’ve been fighting the feelings and it is ridiculous. My heart knows that these ladies love me and they all have “real” lives with messy kids and everything that goes along with actually living, but sometimes my head forgets. Thank you for the reminder. <3
Reading this was like a breath of fresh air – thank you!
Comparison permeates every aspect of life. It’s so very hard to see through the fog of comparison. I’m sure the feeling is freeing when we let go of it and just things be as they are. I never leave here feeling less than. I feel lifted up and inspired! Thank you for all you do!
Yes, thank you. We all need this reminder. I’m just trying to survive one moment at a time right now, and any comparisons I make (even to myself on a good day!) will put me right over the edge. You always say it so well, Lisa-Jo: I need to dance right where I’m at.
Thanks, thanks, bless you.
I don’t expect I’ll ever meet up with you in this earth, but someday I will see you and know you, and I’ll say “thank you” spirit to spirit, for the encouragement you’ve given to me and countless others. You truly are a blessing to so many of us. Thank you.
Wow! AMAZING post. I love your blog.
This is a fantastic reminder of what I know already to be true – thank you for saying it so eloquently (and with a bit of humor).
Off to “dance where I’m at” today :)
AMEN, Lisa Jo. Really needed that today.
Oh yes. What you said.
I need to believe that.
Thank you.
Wonderful post – thanks for sharing. And oh so true.
This is so incredibly to-the-heart of it all. In life, in blogging, in church, in school, in wifehood, in motherhood, in sisterhood. I agree with every word, thank you for writing this – for you, for me, for your community.
Thank you for this. I love the honesty here that cries for attention, I need to remember this so much more!
Love this! Especially that last part, “Let’s not trample what we’ve been given in order to get to what we wish we’d got.”
This just reiterates the point I learned while reading 1000 Gifts. We’ve got to see the blessings and the gifts we already have instead of constantly desiring more.
I can not tell you just how badly I needed this at this precise moment in my life! I am taking a class that starts tonight on writing a successful blog and I almost had myself talked out of it. Everyone of those ugly fear comparisons have been attacking me all day, “What if I’m not as good as…, My house isn’t as pretty as…, I’m not pretty enough, smart enough, funny enough…” And it is so hard to admit thees things because you don’t want to appear weak or ‘not good enough’. Thank you for the reminder that I don’t have to be better than ‘her’ I can just be me and that is good enough!
Starbucks Frappuccino…you’re speaking my language. :p I actually rarely order anything when I hang out with friends at Starbucks, but I love me a cold Starbucks Frap from the fridge. haha!
My friends just spoke on the topic of the comparison game at our MOPS get-together…not a game I want to play.
Tears and a huge ol’ lump in my throat right now. I wish, I wish I could get this through my head. I’ve been stunted for so long because of this. I need to know that God has a plan for ME, that is unique for ME, that is not meant for anyone else.
Thank you for speaking truth today.
I found this via Google + and it is indeed timely. Lately I’ve become caught up in all of these blog posts that are so, so popular about how I’m doing everything WRONG (Pinterest, google +, not adding cutesy font titles to my pictures, not taking great pictures in the first place, not having a FB page for my blog). So caught up in the fact that I “can’t do what she does.” When really I should be thinking “I *don’t* do what she does” because I am me. Not her. I so easily get snared in the comparison trap. And, in my eyes, I always come away missing a foot. Or two. So, thank you for this. Truly, I appreciate it.
Thank you my Sister in Christ for your ministry through this blog. Sadly, I believe it’s in our fallen human nature to compare. I often rue the day Pinterest was created! A few minutes on there leaves my self esteem tank empty. Maybe we should start a site with pics of our homes in a state of reality….snow days, sick days, every I can’t breathe days. Pics of piles of laundry. Pics of bangs cut too short; dye jobs gone wrong. Pics of our failed attempts @ Easter basket cupcakes (ahem) which looked nothing like the ones on our computer screen, which nonetheless, brought a smile to 3 little faces and spoke love to their hearts. And lot and lots of grace moment pics!
Ah, sweetie – you have no idea how much I needed to read this TONIGHT. I, too, have a couple of things to pull together for the JT retreat and am woefully behind, nearing panic. DEEP breath. God is good, God is enough. So am I. When I said yes to this retreat, I didn’t know I’d be back in the pastoral saddle during Lent and Holy Week and the whole enchilada. Oy vey. We’ll make it, Lisa-Jo. Because God appointed this time for us and God won’t abandon us in the process. So sit yourself down amongst the lego and I’ll sit myself down amidst the lectionary texts and we’ll get there, okay? Can’t wait to see you.
So what I needed to hear and thank you, thank you writing words we all need to hear!!
This was so beautifully written and spoke to the heart of what every woman feels. I have tears in my eyes and feel that I need to re-read it many times to let the message soak in. Love is where it’s at and what it is all about, truly. A truth that I am only just beginning to understand. And love casts out fear of all kinds. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul.
I had recently written a blog post of my own and within it was a line about you :) I wrote that I could be jealous of you for your fearless writing, but that I choose instead to be inspired by you. Because you do inspire me and help me to be more fearless in my own writing. Thank you for that :)
Thank YOU – dancing with you today, Jamie :)
PS My writing isn’t fearless. I get scared. I just write anyway. Some days are easier than others. We just keep on writing, and have Ben Affleck from that movie, Bounce, in my head saying, “It’s not brave if you’re not scared.” – LOVE that cheesy line :)
So needed this today! Thanks for sharing!
Oh Lisa-Jo I know I have said this a million times, but every time I read one of your blogs it’s like rain on my desert. Thank you for the gentle reminder. I have not written very many blogs in the last year. I know that I am a talented writer, however I see all the “big bloggers” and I convince myself that they have such a different writing style and they are so much more interesting than I am, and then I lose any and all motivation to write. I need to remind myself from time to time that everyone started out as a “newbie”, and it takes time to figure out “blog layouts” and the “do’s and don’ts” of blogs and writing. From time to time I see others comparing their life to mine. I am fortunate that I get to spend so much time with my grandkids each day and doing all sorts of activities and going all sorts of places, but as you say, I also have the many “realities of life”….the 6 year old meltdowns, crazy schedules and exhaustion, not enough thank yous at the end of the day, etc etc. and because I don’t always “post” about them for some reason it seems to some that my life is a fairytale daily. It’s just a regular life where I choose to focus on the good and let the crazy and bad go at the end of the day and start over again the next. Lisa-Jo, thank you truly, I am going to try and focus on my writing, and on my blog writing, haven’t done a 5 minute Friday in months. Perhaps that should be my first goal!!
I struggle daily, sometimes hourly with comparisons. It is a hard habit to break, but it something I am determined to do because I don’t want my little guy (also four) to grow up ever feeling less than somebody else. Carol Dweck talks about having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset (www.mindsetworks.com) where a fixed mindset believes that all your abilities are fixed and can’t be changed. A growth mindset believes that you are able to improve yourself and that is where the focus should be, not on comparisons to others.
I cried as I read your words. The very things running through my head the last couple of days, you put into words on the computer. Thanks for the encouragement.
Dear, Sweet, Amazing, Wonderful, Eloquent Lisa-Jo,
I tend not to comment very often (in fact I think this may be only the 2nd time since I started reading your blog over a year ago), because in my mind you are such a popular and inspirational blogger there is no way you would need the validation of my thoughts. So when I read this line: “Lisa-Jo Baker
02 Apr 2013
Comparisons will kick you in the teeth and hijack your dreams every time
in Blogging, Cheering for you, Faith
I’m breathing OK these days. But a month ago I felt a lot like my life was a bus that had left without me. I was tired, stretched, uncomfortable in my skin. Scared of my voice and my blog because it’s scary to write what people will likely disagree with at some point. I felt like I carried all these rulers stuck uncomfortably in my back pocket for checking if I was measuring up.
I’m not sure what I was supposed to be measuring up to exactly. How to write, how to raise my kids, how to prepare supper, how to remember to unload the dishwasher. I just know that most days I wasn’t. Or more truthfully, most days I simply felt like I wasn’t. The Internet can be a very loud and shouty place about what everyone else is doing successfully.
It feels like such an embarrassing admission – the rabbit hole of comparing yourself to other people. But it can suck you in and suck the life out of you. But eventually I come out the other end and take deep breaths and remember that Jesus moved into the neighborhood and isn’t going to leave me to sort through all my garbage alone.
I wrote this last year. And this year I went looking for it again. To remember. That comparison is always a trap and I want us to escape it together. So today I think I need to sit at this desk in the corner of a {not-so-messy-as-usual} playroom and pull you aside and ask you again, “How can we be in this together instead of competing at this?”
Because I don’t ever want you to visit here and leave feeling less-than.
Comparison will rob you blind, smash in your self-image, trash your house and tar and feather your kids.
It takes what is beautiful and tears it up into tiny bits like so many shredded pieces of a painting my four-year-old tore up two nights ago.
He loves to paint. He loves the textures, the water, the color, choosing the sheet of paper. He spends time and pours his imagination into all that wet collage of color. But show him what someone else is doing; add a long day and a quick temper into the mix, and he bursts into a fiery, four-year-old iconoclast.
Everything broken now.
And once he’d torn the paper in half he collapsed into a small version of himself and cupped dimpled hands around his short, tender hair and cried like he’d lost his best friend.
Comparison will eat at the heart of everything you love the most.
Love to write? Comparison will whisper it’s pointless when nobody reads your blog anyway. That your stories are lame and who cares what happened to a girl growing up once upon a time in South Africa any way?” You can’t imagine how surprised I was.
I am not eloquent like you, I don’t have the skill of painting pictures with my words or using them as band-aids for hurting mom hearts like you do, so I fear that I won’t be able to express just how much this blog has meant to me, so that you really FEEL it, like I feel YOUR words. But its true. I think the last comment I left many months ago said something along the lines of: “On the days when I feel like nobody sees me and what I’m going through, I read your blog and know that YOU see ME!” It’s as true now as it was then. You pick out all those secret guilty thoughts and fear and inadequacy and uselessness and frustration and want-to-give-up days hiding in my heart and you say “Hey, me too, it’s all right, I see you and we’re all in this together mama.” So thank you. Thank you a million times. I care a WHOLE lot about the stories of a lady from South Africa.
-Shelley
Shelley. You took my breath away. Thank you feels like a very small word. But thank you. I needed to hear that tonight. I have a full day of writing my small South African stories ahead of me tomorrow. I am packing your words in my pocket and taking them with me. Thank you.
I’m thrilled I could give you back the tiniest sliver of what you have given to me. <3
Sorry, this was what my comment was SUPPOSED to say, I don’t know what happened with the last!
Dear, Sweet, Amazing, Wonderful, Eloquent Lisa-Jo,
I tend not to comment very often (in fact I think this may be only the 2nd time since I started reading your blog over a year ago), because in my mind you are such a popular and inspirational blogger there is no way you would need the validation of my thoughts. So when I read this line: Love to write? Comparison will whisper it’s pointless when nobody reads your blog anyway. That your stories are lame and who cares what happened to a girl growing up once upon a time in South Africa any way?” You can’t imagine how surprised I was.
I am not eloquent like you, I don’t have the skill of painting pictures with my words or using them as band-aids for hurting mom hearts like you do, so I fear that I won’t be able to express just how much this blog has meant to me, so that you really FEEL it, like I feel YOUR words. But its true. I think the last comment I left many months ago said something along the lines of: “On the days when I feel like nobody sees me and what I’m going through, I read your blog and know that YOU see ME!” It’s as true now as it was then. You pick out all those secret guilty thoughts and fear and inadequacy and uselessness and frustration and want-to-give-up days hiding in my heart and you say “Hey, me too, it’s all right, I see you and we’re all in this together mama.” So thank you. Thank you a million times. I care a WHOLE lot about the stories of a lady from South Africa.
-Shelley
Thank you for this reminder. Comparison gets us nowhere, like the hamster. I do always leave here feeling better, good, at peace. Your words bring comfort to me knowing I’m never alone. Keep writing the truth and I’ll always keep reading.
Amen to this! I constantly am in a battle against the “ideal woman” . She is the perfect cook, perfect housekeeper, perfect mom, perfect wife. has a degree . everyone’s best friend, etc. etc. How can one live up to the world’s standards anymore?
I came by to see what’s happening for FMF – and am glad I did – to read your post. Very “well said” from the heart and meaningful. It helps to get our perspective (on Christ) and cleared away from the chatter of things in our life. It’s nice to know you’re human and can write about it – express it – encourage others through it.
Funny – sort of – I was reading a comment and found myself almost comparing myself … wow, how did ThAt happen? That just sneaked right in and shot a blow at me. Phew! So I reminded myself – hey now,isn’t that what I just read about!
Thank you for your post. I’m thinking about placing a post on my blog w/your post – it needs to be shared and shared again.
Thanks – Jenn
I “pressed this” and posted something about your post and your post link. Thank you. Glad I stopped by. See you for FMF … later … as in tomorrow. Too tired to wait up and write tonight. ;) Jenn
This really spoke to my heart this morning. You and a friend inspired me to begin my blog again. I had not thought about it for a long time. Seven years actually. And when u began it then I had only posted five entries. All this time later, with a husband next to me and a daughter under my wings, I decided to start again. I listened to the lie that what I have to say was not neccessary. And it may not be. But I know God has given me a gift and if I don’t use it for His glory it will atrophy and die. I don’t believe that’s His will. So with each entry I have had to overcome a vulnerableness of exposing myself to the handful of readers I have (in large part my Facebook friends and family) and trust He has a plan for this. One thing I have discovered during this process is that there is a beauty community of Christian peers scaling this same summit in artful and beautiful ways. Thank you for your cry to keep us focused on nurturing one another in our callings. God bless you sweet sister in Christ.
Ps. I want to add that through your book list I have discovered an author that sings to me: Gary Thomas. I have just finished “Sacred Marriage” and have “Sacred Parenting” to read next. That is after I reread “Sacred Marriage.” That is a beautiful, beautiful book.
Childhood beautiful, evocative, blink of an eye, they have grown up, looked at children’s childhood, and I’m happy for them, but also happy for their own childhood.
Beautiful!!
Ugh!! The comparison monster… Lord rid of it!
Learning to love my sisters and cheer them on. This journey is so much better that way!
I just found your blog today and am addicted….like want to print out your blogs like this one and blow them up and paint them to my walls in my house addicted. Your words are beautiful and your heart is so true. Thank you for writing!
Dear Lisa- Jo! This post truly spoke to my heart, I really needed to read every word! Your encouraging inspired me to write a post, where I borrowed some of your words in this post, and linked it back to you. I hope you don’t mind, and if you do please let me know. I see I am supposed to do a trackback here, but I don’t know how to do it. Here’s the link to the post where I shared some of your words: https://avasophie.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/226/.
With love, Ava Sophie
This is a treasure. Thank you. I want to read it once a day to myself and my boys. Love.