comparison

i woke up with random thoughts in my mind today...

we don't think we do it. we find it reprehensible in others yet it goes virtually undetected in ourselves. the long look down our nose at others with the age old, pharisaical sigh "thank God I am not like that person". 

we don't think we do it.

but we all do it. it is the main topic of many conversations. 

and it doesn't show up in such an obvious way. it comes in different packages - "well, i just wouldn't do it that way", "my kids would never do that- i would never let my kids do that", "can you believe they think that is ok?", and on it goes. 

it feels necessary, almost like we can't help it. but at the core of comparison is a fickle scale that makes me the winner sometimes and the loser more often than not. 

the problem with comparison is that i am not, and you are not the standard. 

i am not the standard for things i excel at - like music, or communication. 

thankfully i am not the standard for organization and living a perfect, balanced lifestyle. 

but no one is. 

it is a mistake for us to use others success or failure as leverage to feel better or worse about ourselves. no human can carry that load.   

so i think the lesson for me is to be the other character in the story - "Oh God, have mercy on me, the sinner". 

I can enforce a standard that i did not create. there is such a thing as right and wrong, but i didn't establish it,  and i must avoid the temptation to use that standard as a tool to puff up my own pride and protect my own self worth. 

i told you they were random thoughts.