I have a confession to make.
I compare myself all too often with others. In fact, as I was sitting down to write this first post for Sisters in Bloom I had to battle fear. That fear? That I wouldn’t measure up. That my words would be clunky, or not-well formed, or that my grammar would be far from correct. Then I worried that no one would like me. I’d get low comments or none of those little facebook likes.
And my self-confidence plummeted.
All because I started to compare myself to others. To my friends. To you.
In that comparison, I began to see myself as less than who the Lord sees me as — my lens for viewing self became one of the world. Am I good enough?
Am I good enough? Four words that can freeze us as women right where we happen to be. We start to question our mothering, our role as wife, or sister, or friend, or worker, or writer — and the comparison of am I good enough in fact steals away at our contentment. You see, my dear sisters, when I live concerned about how others view me I live in a state of high anxiety. Discontent.
You matter to me. But, you matter to me as friends, as readers, as sisters. I am who I am. In my messy, not perfectly-packaged life with my run-on sentences and conversational grammar style. We share a bond – the love of Christ and the living of our lives for Him.
So we must remain diligent to be real. To live our lives without the masks of I’m okays and I’m fines when inside we ache. And that means being less concerned about the impression that I think I make and more concerned with being me, who Christ made me to be. We each have a niche, we each have our own voice, our own families, and that is beautiful.
Don’t compare, my sisters. Be you.
That’s exactly who Christ created you to be.