Comparison

In this episode, Brandon, Megan and Jilliane discuss comparison, the dangers of it, and how to fight it. 

Relevant Scripture:

• Genesis 4
• Genesis 29
• Matthew 6
• Philippians 4
• Matthew 25:14-30
• Galatians 6
• Psalm 103

The Workshop exists to equip and encourage young adults to live out their faith in Jesus—in their friendships, workplaces, families, and relationships. This podcast creates space for honest conversations, biblical truth, and practical wisdom as we “workshop” what it looks like to live godly, purposeful lives in every season. Our community is for those committed to becoming more like Jesus, together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Well, hey everyone. Welcome back to the Workshop Podcast. On this podcast, we workshop what it looks like to live godly, purposeful lives as young adults. And today I'm here with Brandon and Megan.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Hello, hello.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Hello, hello. Hey, and we are talking about fighting comparison today. Um, because a lot of the people in our ministry are young single adults, and we can fight comparison a lot. Um, but everybody compares something to something or someone to someone, no matter what stage of life you're in. And it's just not something that leads you to a um fruitful life when you are overly comparing things because it can either lead to pride or insecurity or other things. And so I'm just going to open up the floor and have y'all share some first thoughts about comparison, and then we will continue um into more of the discussion. So uh where can y'all see that people are most tempted to compare?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Great question. Um, there is a lot to say about this subject, and I think that it's something that is rampant amongst us, it lives within all of us to some extent. Um I think that you know there's a couple of things that I could say on this. One is I I just think from like a biblical standpoint speaking, comparison a lot of times comes where there's perceived competition. And why I say biblical standpoint, what I what I think of whenever I think of comparison is often the story of Cain and Abel. It's like chapter four of Genesis, very early on in the Bible, but uh essentially Cain is jealous of his brother Abel, and the Lord has looked upon Abel's sacrifice as pleasing and Cain's as not, and Cain ends up killing his brother Abel. Um, and there's this perceived competition, I think, that Cain feels like because Abel's sacrifice was pleasing, uh mine was less than or mine was not, and out of a jealousy, out of a comparison, he takes action. Um and the reality is though, in verse six of that chapter, chapter four of Genesis, uh, God says, Hey, why are you angry, Cain? Like, why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? Uh and so God's really addressing, hey, it's got nothing to do with Abel being better, or I can't accept, or both of your offerings can't be pleasing. Um, like it is simply Cain before the Lord. So the way that this translates, I think that when we feel as though we're in competition with people, when we feel as though everybody around us is a threat to our success, to us finding what we're looking for in life, uh, to us, yeah, being uh being successful in whatever it is that we're looking to achieve, then we feel a desire or a tendency to compare ourselves to them, to say we're better or worse than them. So I think that competition is a huge part. I think that competition finds itself a lot on social media, which I think is probably where this conversation was bound to head at some point, was that social media is a place that is wrought with comparison because we're constantly looking at the best of what somebody wants to put forward, and we're comparing that to our reality and our experiences. And so it feels like, man, everybody else is getting the things that I want or able to go on the vacations that I want to, they've got the relationship that I want to, they've got uh those Astros tickets that I want to, like whatever it is. Uh, and we have a strong tendency to compare on social media.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, I think um thinking of stories in the Bible, I think of Leah and Rachel um also in Genesis, where it was one of those things that both of them desired what the other had, but weren't content with what how the Lord met them. If you don't, if you're not familiar with the story, essentially Leah and Rachel's dad hoodwinks um Jacob into marrying um Leah when he wanted to marry Rachel, and then he's like, Well, now you've married Leah. You can also marry Rachel if you want. And so there were sisters, and then they turned into rivals because um Jacob really desired Rachel, um, and that was the wife that he wanted, but the Lord met and blessed Leah with children, which is what Rachel really wanted. So Rachel had Jacob's eye, Leah had Jacob's sons, and neither one of them were content, and both of them feuded over the other and really like went at it in a really unhealthy way that we see like displayed through scripture. But the Lord saw each of them and I think met them with what was needed. Um and I think sometimes we think of how God just gave us what we wanted and then we would be happy and content. But I think that that is to say that we know what God, what God's best is, versus trusting God with his best and trusting that like he has our best interest at heart, even if we don't get what we think we want. And yeah, and in and social media is just like the like just feeding ground for comparison because we I mean you so many people have heard it said, we're comparing our like day-to-day life with people's highlight reels, um, like their highlights of their story. I mean, I myself literally post once in a blue moon at this point. Um, and when I am posting, I'm trying trust me, I'm not posting the like struggles of life. I'm posting the like memories that I want to remember. And if you're only seeing that, um, then it can be hard. And I think of our primary audience is singles. I as someone who is now married with a child, my encouragement to you would be to work through your comparison struggles now because they won't get any easier. Comparison doesn't end when you maybe get the man or the woman that you wanted and marry and move on. Comparison continues until the end of time. There's always something to compare. And if you are constantly comparing yourself, your family, your children, your situation to others, then you'll never be content with how the Lord has blessed you. I mean, I just think of like go going back to like the story of Leah and Rachel. Leah was blessed immeasurably to be able to have so many sons, to be able to bear children and continue to bear more children. I mean, not for nothing. Literally, Jesus is in the line from Leah, not Rachel. Um, but it wasn't enough. And she like lived a really like it seemed like just a really hard life because she was constantly never content. And if we can sit continue to live lives never content and never truly receiving the goodness from the Lord and seeing his goodness, then we're just gonna, it's like we're not gonna live in the full blessing of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that that story is so good, or that example, because to your point, there is always something desirable that we will not have. Like in this life, there's always something that we will want and not have. Therefore, there is always reason to compare ourselves against those that do have what we want. And so I just think that that's such a great example. I was thinking about uh actually last night, kind of I think that this connects a lot with the idea of maybe contentment because I we Valerie and I, my wife and I last night we were talking, and we were just like, man, we honestly we got stuck in a conversation where it was like we don't have this, like this thing hasn't worked out the way that we want it to yet, or we're still waiting on this, or there's this challenge ahead. And we were just like kind of thinking over that, man, and we were like, man, this is kind of tough. Um, why is it not easier? Like, why do we not have this? But then I was, you know, just reminded, I was like, man, I think that if we were to look back to ourselves 10 years ago, and you were to ask Brandon and Valerie, like if you gave them a snapshot into our lives today, I think that they would say, Wow, how God has blessed us beyond measure. So I think that we just have such a tendency to look at the things that we don't have as opposed to practice gratitude for the things that we do. And that is something that I think is a breeding ground for comparison as well, is just discontentment.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

I went to Passion. I was listening to a panel with Sadie Robertson and JP and Ben Stewart. I loved that portion. And she was talking about, I mean, like Sadie, if you don't know who she is, she's like a huge Christian speaker. You could consider her as an influencer too, and she just has a massive social media following. And she also is a follower of Jesus. And uh she was talking about how she has like a a few kids or something, um, like one or two kids, and she was saying how she posted a picture of these like perfect cookies that she made that like she got from this amazing recipe, and it was a picture perfect moment with like her kids in it or something. It was like out of a magazine, but then she thought about it and she was like, People do not see the entire process of the whole mess that took her to get there. And so I think she also, I don't remember if she posted it or she, I mean she at least talked about it of like her kids were running around being crazy and like the flour was everywhere and the cookie dough is like everywhere in the kitchen, and it's just a mess. And then you look at the perfect picture, and it's like everyone can think, like, man, I want to live a perfect life with a husband and two kids baking cookies in the middle of the day, but like you don't see the entire chaos that like took to get there, and people will think, Oh, I don't need to go through the chaos because I see a perfect result in front of me, but like you just don't see people's journeys, and so they were talking about like oh, the the journey's the best part, but really it is, and something else I took away was that the journey or the process is made up of the mess and the memories, and so you you um appreciate things more because of the memories, but memories come because of mess, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

It makes me think of um, so I enjoy hiking hard things, um, like 14ers, and it makes me think of um one year I hiked Pikes Peak. And for those of you who don't know, you can drive up to Pikes Peak and literally take a picture at the summit, or you can hike literally 13 miles to get there. The easy way or the hard way. Exactly. So me and my friend naturally went the 13 mile route because why not? And so we get up there and we get to the summit, and we're taking pictures with like the like elevation or whatever. And I'm not gonna lie, I was judging the people that were also taking pictures with the elevation, and I'm like, you drove this, you didn't hike it. And I think that what what people are and no, look, the roads are there for you to do that. So go get your donuts at the top of Pike's Peak. The donuts are sweeter when you hike it yourself, but to each his own.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

It's a good word.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Each journey is your own. But I think that people want the shortcut, they want to be able to hike or to to drive the trek up to Pikes Peak and take the picture. They don't want to have to hike it. Um, but the journey is so I like I say I I connect with the Lord deeper. One of the ways I ideally connect with the Lord is hiking. I love hiking. I love the and it's the journey. And it's not about like just running up a mountain to get to 14,000 feet, it's the journey it takes to get there. Um, and so I think we want we want the picture perfect moment. We don't want the trials, we don't want what gets us there, but I think what gets us there is what makes us the people of character, the people that the Lord has for us.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah, I think that's good. Uh I was just thinking too, like, again, as cliche as it may sound, you know, when we're talking about this idea of the journey, like the Lord does have something very specific and unique for your life that he doesn't have for others, and he has something for others that he might not have for you. And I think that we just need to recognize that if we truly trust that our God is a good father and he knows what we need before we even ask it of him, I think that that allows us to accept the circumstances of our life without um without feeling discontent or without this tendency to compare. And there may be things that we desire, treasures on earth, as you might call it. I'm referencing Matthew 6 as I'm talking about this, but uh that we might want that God says, No, I'm not going to give you that, but in the waiting and in growing in trust, uh we can lay up greater treasures in heaven. An example of this that I think about that is just like kind of silly, probably coming out of my mouth. But I drive, uh, like I'll drive through neighborhoods sometimes. Memorial, I I don't know, River Oaks, something like that. And it's like, gosh, like this is so nice. I start comparing and I'm like, God, you've given me something that I will never live in a house like that. Like for the rest of my life, that's just not something that I could logically expect I might get. And there's certain things, you know, it's like uh that are questions of whether or not the Lord will provide that in our lives or not. That's something for me that I'm like, I kind of want that, but I know I'm never gonna get it. And it's just this act of saying, Lord, I trust that the investments of like the kingdom are greater than desiring this treasure here on earth. And and everything here on earth is fleeting as much as we desire it, as much as we might want what somebody else might have, ultimately uh we know that what is of surpassing value is Second Corinthians would say, there's an eternal weight of glory to be had. And that's where our hope is. Our hope is not attaining things here on this earth.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Yeah. What would you say to the person who like has desires of things? Do you think they should feel bad?

SPEAKER_00 14:52

I mean, I would for someone who's desiring something, assuming that this desire is something that is good, something that is praiseworthy, something that is honorable, assuming those things, if I what I would tell that person, so I'm just gonna say what probably most people, it's the situation for them. If you're if you desire to be married, but you're not even even being asked that on a first date, and you're like, Lord, why? It can be so hard because man, being wanting to be married, wanting to have children, wanting to have a family, those are all good things. Those are all praiseworthy, admirable things. Um, but sometimes we just need to trust what we can't see because we know that the Lord is faithful and he will continue to be faithful. I know I struggled in different seasons of singleness because I would look around and I'd be like, man, I I feel like I'm ready. I feel like I don't have like I've I've worked through like my past struggles, my past um trauma, my past sin. I feel like I've like done the work to get ready. I feel like financially I'm at a place. I literally felt like I checked off every box, but the Lord was like, not yet. And I didn't understand. Um, but I remember thinking, um, especially because it's like it's not one of those things that it's like, well, it only takes one. It takes two. Um, there uh there needs to be a husband there. And I remember um having the very clear thought, specifically in the context of being married, Lord, I believe that I'm ready, but that doesn't mean that my husband is ready. Um and I'm gonna trust that you're gonna bring him into my life whenever the timing is what it should be, and I'm gonna trust you in it. And so until then, I'm going to leverage my singleness for your kingdom. Um, and I'm gonna do fun things that won't work out as easy in marriage. Um, and I did, and it was fun. Like I traveled, I literally traveled the world in my singleness, um, not comparing myself, knowing that I wanted that, I wanted marriage, I wanted a family. Um, and now being on the other side of it, um, it's one of those things that I can look back and um Benji was doing uh his doctorate and he was taking like literally forever because he was working part-time, doing school part-time, and I came in, we started dating like in the last four months of his like eight-year journey or something. And I was like, I don't know if I could have handled being your girlfriend, fiance, wife through all that. Um more power to the people who can. But um, I was, I mean, I was working in a career for as long as he was in school, I was doing a job, yeah, um, like full-time job. And so trusting, so I would just say, like, trust the Lord, give him like bring those things to him. Um, he can handle it, he can handle your frustrations, he can handle your cries, he can handle your desires. Um, and but trust that he knows ultimately what's best for you.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah, that's good. Uh, there's a I feel like there's a lot I could say on this, but the kind of main thing that I would point out is uh Philippians 4, I think is a great example of this because in Philippians 4, Paul is writing to the church in Philippi and he's saying, Thank you for the gift that you sent to me. Um, but he then says, Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I've learned the secret of being content. I know how to be brought low, I know how to abound, I know what it is to place or to face need, and I know what it is to experience abundance. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And I think that it's such a great example because he says, Hey, I have experienced desires, like I know what it's like to be hungry. That's a that is a desire that we are going to experience in this life. And so there's a validation of our desires, certainly, but it's that our desires do not rule over us, our desires don't control us because of finding satisfaction in the person of Jesus. Whenever uh Mabel, our daughter was first born, um, it's just like I I love God and his creation. I think there's so many signs of God as creator and a little baby, and and we were in the hospital right after Mabel was born, and um, you know, one of the things that we didn't expect on the other side of that was okay, how do we know when she's had enough to eat? You know, like she can't really use her words, she can't communicate to us, and so we're kind of anxious, like, okay, is she full? Is she not? What's going on? And I remember I asked a nurse and she said, Okay, it's really easy to actually know if she is full. And she said, I'll never forget, she said, when she's satisfied, she will go from a closed fist to an open hand. And I was just like, man, what a what a picture of like the Lord uh and his design to say, okay, when we are satisfied, I I believe in him, we can go from a closed fist from holding all of our desires tightly to wanting to control them to opening them up and saying, Lord, I might have this as a genuine desire in my life, but I'm able to surrender it to you. I'm able to give it to you and offer uh all that I want because I know you are ultimately satisfying.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah, like having desires are not a bad thing, but it's what you do with those desires that shows your trust in the Lord. Like, are you going to say, God, I desire marriage, I desire children, but I trust you with it, even though I'm feel ready and he might also be ready, it might just not be your timing and it might not make sense to me now, but like I trust you with it, versus taking things into control, taking things in your own hands and taking control, you're probably gonna mess things up and you should just trust the Lord. And that's easier said than done. Um, but just knowing both in your head and in your heart that God's plan is better for you will get you in a better spot and not cause you to be ungrateful for where you're at. So when it comes to comparison, I think a lot of people think that it only makes you like stir in your insecurities and hurts you internally, but I think it can also hurt relationships and cause you to project onto other people. So, what are some dangers or some harms of comparison that y'all have seen that you would want to caution people towards?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

I mean, I think something that a danger that you have is when you're comparing yourself, um, and you're looking at others again, just like Leah and Rachel, back to Leah and Rachel, you're missing out on the blessing that the Lord is giving you. Um, I think of how some people can really struggle with um Your season of singleness. And so therefore it's hard for you to celebrate your friends when they're being asked out, when they're being engaged, when they're in a season that you want to be in, but you're not in yet. Um, or maybe you're in it, but it doesn't look like you what you were thinking it would be. Um, and so the danger is is that you're going to potentially hurt a relationship, hurt a friendship, or not be the friend that you want to be, or the friend that you want to have. I just think of friends um on the positive side. I had a friend who celebrated friends. I two friends come to mind that have celebrated friends so well in seasons that they had of want. Um for one friend, it was a friend who I she was the she's the friend that like gets a friend and doesn't let her doesn't let him go. I'm like, it literally got to a point where I'm like, I asked her, I was like, How many weddings have you been in? She finally she is now married, but um it was one of those things that it was finally her time, um, as one would say. And I said, How many weddings did you been have you been in? And sure enough, she sent me a list of 27 dresses, and I was like, oh my god, I was literally thinking of that movie.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Like it's it's not a perfect example, but if you haven't watched 27 dresses, it's about a girl who's been a bridesmaid in 27 weddings. And whenever she finally gets married at the end, you see at her wedding all of her 27 bridesmaids were wearing the bridesmaid's dress that she wore in theirs.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

So I like kind of lived that with this friend. Um, not in the context of she didn't make us all wear the dress that we had her wear at our weddings, but um, which would have been funny, uh, but she did celebrate people so well. And she was that friend who, like, I never at any moment in time was afraid to tell her about something that was happening in my life that I knew that she wanted of to be true of her own, but it wasn't. She celebrated people so well. Literally, she was the only not married person at her bachelorette, and it was like a bachelorette of 20 girls, the only one not married because she had just celebrated people so well. Same with like a friend who struggled with infertility of someone who, while she wanted a baby so bad, she celebrated her friends who were in that season, knowing that the Lord saw her and kept her and had a plan for her. Um, but I've also seen had friendships that honestly they're we're not friends anymore because in seasons that I had that they wanted, they could not celebrate me and they couldn't be there in that season while I was in that season. And it's just hard. And so like, and not every friendship is gonna last through all the seasons of life, but also it can sometimes be hard to look back and be like, man, like I want for that, but you have the danger of losing friendships when you can't when like you can't get past what you your lack and what they have.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Yeah, something I used to say was happy for you, sad for me, but really it's like no, I'm happy for us. Like, we get to celebrate that you are getting something that you desired and wanted. And then I'll also joke, like, do I want to marry your fiance? No. So why should I feel like why should I be well?

SPEAKER_00 25:18

It's also girls, it's not cute when like you can't celebrate your girlfriend being asked out. You're like cute, you're gonna be sour about a girl, like a girl finally being asked out. Like, can we not celebrate a man saying, Hey, I'm interested in you and I'm gonna ask you out? Yeah, praise God.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah, I think that that gets into part of what uh what I was saying earlier is that it leads, it really breeds competition. Yeah. And there's this idea that mentality of or that example of a girl not being able to celebrate her friend getting asked out. It there's this feeling of, oh, that's one less opportunity for me to get asked out, or that's one more person that's not interested in me, but is interested in my friend. And so we really yeah, it's a scarcity mindset, it's this interpretation that there's only so much to go around when our God is a God of abundance. Like that's how he's created, that's his promise towards us, is he is never lacking in resources. So that's a misunderstanding of who our God is and what he's able to accomplish in our lives. I think that the other danger that I look at is that it uh it keeps us from being great stewards of our own lives. Um, yeah, I think about the parable of the talents, right? Jesus uh gives this example where, you know, somebody gets one, somebody gets five, somebody gets ten. And the guy who's got five talents is not going to be good, talent being a currency of money. Um, he's not going to be a good steward of that if he is so busy looking at what this guy that has ten talents is doing with his money. And there was a company that I worked for at one point where it was um we were rated against one another. And so it wasn't, hey, you get you, you know, you did 10 out of 10 job this this year, but it was like, okay, there's 10 people in a room, you did best, you did second best, you did third. So it was uh we were rated against each other. And what I I felt at times I had to keep myself from doing is from like looking, looking over over there, oh man, like the manager is talking to that guy, like they he they must think he's doing a great job, or you know, this project that this other person's working on. What do people think about that? Like it it's just a distraction from like being a good steward of the work that we've been called to. And so I think that uh it really does, it hinders our our stewardship and the way in which we're responsibly utilizing the season that God has given us for his glory in our lives.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

So, considering all those things, to encourage someone to fight comparison in their lives, we can't just be like, all right, stop comparing yourselves, get over it, be grateful. Um, how would you uh encourage someone to move away from comparison? One thing that comes to mind, Megan, you mentioned this earlier, is moving from comparison to celebration, um, or like moving from comparison to gratitude or comparison to contentment. So, what would y'all say to people who are struggling with this?

SPEAKER_00 28:29

I think the comparison to gratitude is a really good shift. I think comparison to celebration is a hard first step. You're not gonna go from comparing yourself and like what you your lack to celebrating someone, um, I think as easy as you can make the uh just small shift of comparing to being grateful. Um, I think uh so Galatians 6 talks about um let each per Galatians 6 for starting verse 4, let each person examine his own work, and then he can take pride in himself alone and not compare himself with someone else, for each person will have to carry his own load. Um, and then talk continues on like hey, like this person's given word, like hey, share the word. Did you have it open?

SPEAKER_01 29:18

I sure did. I think you were looking at my Bible. I think you were teaching.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Are you comparing with uh but what this makes me think of, um I know that we've talked about singleness a lot, but I think of people see other people's spiritual gifts. Um, so for those of you who might not know as well, I like joke that like the Lord did not give me the gift of teaching. Not that I can't teach, but it's not something that comes natural, it's something that like takes a lot of work. Um, and if I were to sit on our team specifically, who let me tell you, full of excellent communicators and like the hunger for the word on our team is really palatable and really encouraging. But if I were to sit here and be like, man, the Lord didn't give me the gift of teaching, but he decided to give Brandon a heaping load of that. Why? Why not me? Um, it's really and I say and we joke about it, but it's really easy to do that. Um, but the thing is that the Lord didn't give me that gifting, but he gave that gifting in spades to others, and those people are using that gifting beautifully to encourage and to really like build up the church. Um, but then others would say that like my gift of administration and Excel spreadsheets blesses our team in a way that's unique to our team and and and what it needs, whether it's in the form of like retreat housing or budgets or whatever it is. And so I think that it can be really easy to look at gifts that might get a little more attention from um from like the public eyes and say, Well, God, why didn't you give me that? And it's like, well, because if I gave everyone the gift of teaching and not the gift of helps or the gift of administration or the gift of leadership or the gift of evangelism, then we'd be in trouble. Um, like if we all had people with the gift to gab, but not the gift of like helping people, then we would we would be real we would be full of a bunch of people who could preach, but no one who could like shepherd and come along. Like the gift of shepherding is beautiful. Um, and so I think starting with making the shift of comparison to gratitude and looking and asking yourself, what has the Lord gifted me in? How am I using those gifts and those talents? Like um, Dr. Trammell recently did a sermon talking about the talents, and I didn't realize how much a talent was worth back in the day, but it was worth a lot. It wasn't like, I mean, I think in my head, literally, I it was like I gave you a dollar. Yeah. Um, or like in today's world, it's like I gave you a Benjamin, I gave you two Benjamins, and I gave you five Benjamins. And it's like, no, no, no. This was literally like lifetime wages that were given and leveraged. And how are we leveraging the gifts that we're giving? Are we storing them up for ourselves, not to share with others? Are we storing them up and but looking around sour and salty, being like, well, the Lord's giving me this lifetime of blessing, but what about their double lifetime and blessing? And it's like, yeah, like, why not use what we have to glorify God and to build up his church? Um, instead of being over here looking and comparing of what he has and what I don't. Because I bet you if we were to sit around and share the thing that we're jealous someone else has that we don't have, we would be shocked. Because I bet you that everyone in the room on some level or another would be jealous of someone else that and that person had no idea. Yeah. Like, well, I'm glad that you want this gift. I would love your gift of this.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Yeah. I think that's such a great example with the spiritual gifts. And we've said it in different ways throughout this episode, but I think that we will always struggle with comparison while we struggle with insecurity. Like while while there is insecurity that resides within us, I think comparison is going to be a problem. Celebrating others is going to be difficult. And so I I think, Megan, to your point, I think first, the first thing that we need to do before we celebrate others is we need to celebrate what the Lord is doing in our lives. We need to celebrate the life that He has given us, the gifts that He has um allowed us to steward, and ultimately who He is as a faithful Father. And so I think before we go to celebrating others, practicing celebrating God Himself is really important. Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. That we make a regular practice of blessing the Lord and not forgetting the good that he's given us. And then I think that prayerfully that leads into a celebration of others. A couple of practical things. I think that you know, celebrating others is one of those things that as you genuinely celebrate somebody, you celebrate them. Like uh like as you write them a letter or send them a text saying about how grateful you are of what the Lord is doing in their life, I think that that actually in and of itself does help combat comparison. So it's kind of a a loop of choosing to celebrate others, allows us to celebrate them in our hearts as well, not just for fake or not just for show, but to genuinely express congratulations and celebration to somebody else, I think is part of this whole equation as well.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Yeah, and I think ultimately if your eyes are on yourself and other people in a jealous way, of course you're going to find yourself in a place where you're comparing and like wanting to tear people down. But if your eyes are on the Lord and you're celebrating, like God, thank you for giving this gift to me, thank you for giving XYZ to me, and thank you genuinely for giving this to someone else, it doesn't mean that I am not it doesn't mean I'm lacking anything. Like we lack no good thing if we have the Lord. And if we keep our eyes off ourselves and on him, then we will be more content, we will be able to be grateful and celebrate people around us and not compare and to cause us to compare. So those are all the points that I wanted us to cover. Do y'all have any closing things that you want to say before we sign off?

SPEAKER_00 35:36

I would say just take something from today. If if something if even if you're like, I don't think I really struggle with comparison, take something from today, and I would just encourage you to like say, you know what, in the next week, I'm gonna practice this. Whether that's uh writing down things that you're grateful for, and working on like, hey, what's what's something that I can like be better at in working towards uh fighting comparison and tell someone about it.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think there's a lot of things, you know, practical-wise, whether that be writing a congratulations note, whether that be social media fast, I think that that's something that I've experienced and know others that that's that's a helpful thing whenever you're stuck into a trap of comparison. Sometimes it's good uh to take time away from social media and spend that time uh just intentionally investing in your relationship with the Lord. So maybe there is a practical thing to Megan's point that you can do this week to fight against comparison.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

Well, we hope y'all found this helpful and encouraging and that it helps you live a more godly, purposeful life as a young adult. So thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you guys in the next one. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Bye bye.