If you want to be miserable then start comparing

If you want to be perfectly miserable then start comparing. Compare one place with another, compare things with other things and even compare people with other people. If we keep comparing we can become very proficient at it and unconsciously form a habitual addiction. Comparison appears in two vices.

First: We compare ourselves with others. We either begin to feel boastful and proud because we believe we are better than the other person in question or that our strengths and talents outweigh those of our competitors. Or even more often we begin to feel threatened and inferior because we fail to measure up to our perception of others. When this happens we often emulate a self imposed standard that we can't sustain for very long. We adapt and alter our portrait to fit into someone else's frame, and the real 'us' becomes buried deep inside this phony disguise.

Second: We compare other people with other people. This is so unfair and just plain cruel. Children are the ones who suffer most from this. Well meaning adults compare one child's talents in front of another child to try to motivate them to try harder. "Look at your brother, he got it right" "Look at your friend, he is smaller than you but he's not afraid" "If your sister got an 'A' then so can you!" These toxic comparisons poison a child's self image and smother the very motivation that the parent was trying so hard to instill in the first place.

Children are not the only ones who suffer in this way. People compare teachers, friends, pastors, soloists, leaders, personalities, prayers, churches, homes, jobs, salaries, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, luxuries, limitations, pain and even pleasure.

Why not learn to accept people for who they are. Why not accept and adjust to the differences of others enthusiastically as God would want us to. Just as God forgives our wrong and accepts us just as we are, why can't we seem to do the same. We want others to love us for who we are, so we also need to learn to accept and love others for just exactly who they are.

Why is it that we tend to accept others who are like us more readily than those who are different.  God, our wise and creative maker has made each of us different and unique on purpose. We also need to remember that no one is perfect and the sooner we appreciate and accept that fact, the more we will appreciate and accept one another, just as God has. Besides all that, variety is the spice of life. The only thing that would be worse than constant comparison would be for us all to be exactly the same.

Let's try to always celebrate and embrace our differences. Think about how much more in life we could enjoy if we were more open to accepting the unknown, new, different, weird and wonderful around us. Who knows, maybe by doing that, we may even begin to love and accept ourselves and our own strange quirks a bit easier.