How to reject Comparison and Choose to Be Content

We all fall victim to the comparison trap. However, we can reject comparison and choose to be content! The secret is not a matter of what I have or what I have accomplished, but rather whose presence I choose to remain in.   Whose voice I choose to listen to.   Time in God’s presence and with my family is never wasted or regretted, and it always leads to contentment.  The rest is secondary and can lead to comparison.  I’m learning to choose my “friends” wisely.

Two Friends

Her home, so lovely, gently lit

With natural light and softest hues.

A farmhouse couch of natural white

A tidy stack of books and news.

Simply decorated halls,

Tastefully and sparkly clean.

Peaceful nooks and pristine walls,

Aroma: flowers and coffee beans.

Children quoting poetry as

Pleasant as the bread she kneads,

Politeness in their nature, do

Arise to call her “blessed” indeed.

And then there’s me, first class, hot mess.

My couches, dark, to hide the stains

Of spills and splashes, slips and smears

With clutter, books, nerf guns, and trains.

My walls, adorned with fingerprints

And pictures, drawings, dirt and slime.

The smell of trash that someone hid

Wafts down the hall dust bunnies line.

I pick up once again, and then

Into the chaos, daddy enters,

To the sound of lively children

Yelling loudly, “What’s for dinner!?”

Once again I’ve made the choice

To call “comparison” a friend.

Permitting her to join my musings

When I should not let her in.

She is not real or true or kind.

She causes me to doubt God’s gifting.

Contentment, she’s the one I need –

Who does the loving and the lifting.

Reminding me that all I have,

My home, my flaws, my family,

Are constant beauty in the making

stuff that human eyes can’t see.

With swords and costumes strewn around

And sticky flour everywhere

From messy projects gone awry

And meals that children helped prepare,

I’ll do my best to keep us running –

Laundry, dishes, matching socks –

But in the end, what they’ll remember

are blanket forts and painted rocks.

So Jesus, help me recognize,

As window breaks and dust accrues:

While elegance and charm may thrill me,

True refinement’s found in YOU!

Check out these episodes on the UN-Perfect Podcast to help you reject comparison and choose to be content!