[ The grass is greenest where it is watered. ~ Robert Fulghum ]
[ Piper's learned to find contentment through her Lord Christ and in her outreach to others. ]
We've all done it, looking at someone else's life, career, hair or whatever and felt diminished because of our misguided belief that our's isn't their's, that (if only) 'we 'could' or 'had' feeling. The other side of the fence syndrome! It's a terrible feeling that leaves us desiring what we don't have, feeling that our lives aren't enough, that we must not be as successful, smart, or beautiful, or that where we live isn't fulfilling us.
[ Victoria used to define herself through her corporate career and was never satisfied, always looking for the next big opportunity. Since moving into the Livingthrugrace House she's learning who she is and a better road traveled through the Lord. ]
It's satan's oldest and best trick to play on our mind and unfortunately, we fall for it continuously! :D He uses 'astro turf' and makes it look like a 'lush green lawn' and this always opens the doorway to his other favorite; discontentment, after that it's just an easy slope to misguided thinking and and behaviors based on these illusions. We allow satan to win when we're lead down the rabbit hole.
[ Don't be like Alice, get led by the Lord! :) ]
In the age of the internet, it isn't hard to become sidetracked and to forget our own blessings given to us for our own good. At times our energy and goals become spread out way beyond what's in our own best interest and into what others are achieving. You are then essentially driving in the wrong lane and it only leads to becoming lost, and disillusioned.
The internet is good at creating illusions ( Satan uses it too!) to attract and blind us from our true destinies. Use the internet as a tool to serve your purpose not to move you further away from it. Remember God created every one of us to serve him, and we've been provided with the talents ( wether we believe it or not our God given talents exist in everyone of us) to serve in our lives in some way. We are all valued by Him, the only value that's crucial.
[ Piper has worked at having a relationship with the Lord and it's come full circle with her creation of the Crew House to allow others to connect with the Lord and discover who they are! ]
One of the things that makes stopping the comparison game to difficult is the fact that
So many of us don't know ourselves. If we never really know who we are then we can't expect to be in an environment where there are thousands or millions of others and not want to blend in. When you've reach discontentment with yourself you begin looking outside yourself for the opposite.
[ For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things ~Psalms 107:9 ]
Only God can teach us who we are and we can only learn this through learning who he is. I know what you may be thinking; that takes TIME! Yes it does, it takes a lifetime! :D It's why the Lord put us here, for himself, to know us and to have a relationship with us and it's within this relationship that we can begin to blossom, to know our real value and not determine it by other people's journey's or society.
[ Life happens to you while your'e busy making other plans. ~John Lennon ]
You'd think that with the variety of choices, technology advances, and potential opportunities that we'd all be jumping for joy and satisfied in this. However, our modern times seemed to have created a somewhat opposite effect, one where many of us feel pressured to find our niche, to compete, to excel at whatever choice we make. While it is certainly a blessing to have such an open field of opportunity, it makes it even more imperative to 'know thyself' in order to learn which directions we should travel. God is the best travel agent there is! :D He plants little seeds of uneasiness when we've chosen the wrong roads for ourselves, we have an innate feeling if we pay attention. When we utilize the Lord's resources we can begin to understand those feelings and how to go about remedying them.
[ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, the comfort me.~Psalms 23:4 ]
Life is continually happening to us and each moment of that is a gift and blessing, even (hard as it may seem) those difficult ones. We tend to only know we're in the fire when it burns the hottest, and we all must go through it. Learning to cultivate a piece of mind is is the road to contentment. Contentment comes again, through a sense of ourselves by understanding of that through our Lord. We're in a life long learning institution called life and it doesn't stop when we grow up, or graduate from school, or obtain a career or any other life achievement that we attach to happiness.
[ You never know what's lurking on the 'other side'... ]
Our 'grass' is gifted to us and it's up to us to keep our eyes focused on our own green fields. Looking over the fence, through the windows of the internet, friends, celebrities ( I pray you're not doing that! :D ), or society will only leave you constantly wanting, needing, wishing... Furthermore, your'e not really able to see closely over the fence because if you did, you must might find all the doodie laying around on those lawns! :D