Day 24- The Problem With Comparing.............

The problem with comparing, is we don't always know the rest of the story.  In this day and age it is really hard to not compare your life with the lives of others.  All the social media outlets and blogs take us into the homes and daily lives of pretty much anyone we have ever come in contact with or desired to learn more about.  I am guilty of  feeling jealous when I see the great "tidbit" of life so many of my 400+Facebook friends have portrayed at one time or another.  The problem is, I only talk to 10% of them on a regular basis.  I know everyone posts the "great" things in their life and not the boring, awful stuff we all want to forget about.  But, why is it so hard to remember that?

I think it is human nature to portray our lives are going great.  Of course, we want to remember the good times over the bad.  When I have been in some of the most difficult days of my life, the last thing I wanted to do was update my Facebook status with something like:

  "I took my 18th month old in for an eye exam today and guess what, not only is he crossed eyed and extremely far sighted, he also may have a brain tumor.   We also came home from vacation to find our foundation detached from our home and we have a 5 inch opening in our home (that should be real helpful for the snake and mouse problem we already have).  Oh yeah, and insurance doesn't cover it and it cost $10,000 to repair."
 (yes, this could have been a real FB post, no, my son did not end up having a brain tumor, thank God!)

Then, when I first started reading blogs, I was suddenly sucked into the lives of strangers, thinking they have the perfect kids, home, husbands, job and can craft and bake like Martha Stewart.  I couldn't peel away from page after page of perfection, yet I always went away feeling inadaquite. 

It wasn't until I found several blogs I call "keeping it real" blogs that sucked me in and made me feel normal.  They blogged about the good and the bad, they are creative, but not in an ostentatious way, instead they inspired me.  

I finally came to terms that no one has a perfect life, everyone has something that keeps them up at 3 am.  We all go through seasons of ups and downs.  At some point in out life we have a   'why me' or 'what if' pity party.  We wouldn't be human if we didn't.  

Embrace your life, your trials and struggles, knowing there are lessons to be learned down this road of life.  Try not to compare you husband, house, job or kids to everyone else's, because chances are, if you had another, you would find fault them/it too.  God gave you this life for a purpose, remember that and nothing can get you down!  

This is part of a 31 day series, to read more click here.

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