The Myth of Measuring Up

Though Proverbs 4:25–27 exhorts us to look neither to the right nor to the left, we rarely walk through life wearing blinders. Sometimes when I see or hear about other women running marathons, baking work-of-art cupcakes, or winning awards, it’s easy to feel like I’m not measuring up. Comparison is a beast and not one of us escapes its bite.

When we compare, we assign value to one life experience, judging it to be better than another. Yet this is not our place. We don’t know God’s purpose for another woman’s life. We don’t know the trials she has had to overcome, or her blessings or sufferings, or other realities of her current season in life.

Proverbs 20:10 tells us, “Differing weights and differing measures—the Lord detests them both.” In the days of Solomon, silver was weighed on scales balanced against a stone weight. Weights with dishonest labels were used for cheating. Comparison is a dishonest label, too, cheating us out of peace, joy, and contentment.

God doesn’t call us to do it all, nor does he call us to do everything with equal effort and excellence. He calls us to be faithful and obedient to his priorities for us—not to his priorities for anyone else. He calls us to rely on him, not on ourselves. We are not less than others; we are whole and complete in Christ.

Jocelyn Green is the author of Free to Lean: Making Peace with Your Lopsided Life. Find her at JocelynGreen.com. Adapted from Free to Lean, © 2017 by Jocelyn Green. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids, MI 49501. All rights reserved. www.dhp.org.