Recently, I caught an unexpected glimpse of myself from a side view in a long mirror. Since it was not the way I usually see myself, I was startled by the imperfect posture and the profile that "only a mother would love." A beauty I am not, and no amount of beauty products or makeup will make me one. At times, I even pity my husband who is the one who has to look at me the most. In the midst of my reverie, however, I realized the danger of what I was doing. I took the world's standard of beauty and elevated it above God's. Without realizing it, I had just told God that He did not do a very good job when He gave me this face, even though I know well that God does everything correctly and perfectly.
While sin and death mar God's creation, God never intended that everyone have the same high cheekbones, long neck, perfect features, and hourglass figures. Just as flowers, with all their varying beauty, give honor to God in their uniqueness, God also wants us to reflect His creative power in the very different ways we were made.
Comparing myself to someone else is dangerous for two reasons. First, it uses the wrong standard for our inspection. Just as our standard for physical beauty should be God's Word and not what society tells us, we also tend to use the wrong criteria for how well we have done in our activities. As a student, I depended more on what my grades said than whether I had worked "heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Secondly, it puts us in danger of two serious character flaws - pride and insecurity. If we surpass man's approval, we can become proud. If we do not measure up, we can become insecure. Whenever these two things exist in our lives, it will point to using the wrong standard in our lives.
Let us look at housekeeping, for example. Unwittingly, we adopt our standard from the picture perfect homes of magazines. Sometimes we almost apologize for the fact that people live in our home. Instead of looking to God and His ideas for how our house should be kept clean, we live in fear that our house does not measure up to other people's neat homes. It is the Lord who judges His children on how well something is done. After all, he is the Only one who looks beyond the outside and sees our heart attitudes. He knows if we have done our best with a humble spirit or if we are out to get praise from people. What matters in our housekeeping is whether or not we have pleased Him. If we shut our eyes at the end of a long day, all we need to do is say to the Lord, "I did my best today. I know I did not get everything done and the house is still not as clean as I want it, but I really did do my best."
Sometimes I hear the wrong standard being used in the way we criticize others. We might not say it aloud, but our attitude reveals that we have applied our own standard instead of God's to the situation. We need to remember God's words: "Who art though that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth." (Romans 14:4) We have no idea of what was going on in that person's life that day. We do not know what her attitude was. We do not know if he worked to the best of his ability. We do not know if she did it as an offering to God instead of getting approval from people. We just do not know the whole story.
The plague of comparing ourselves to others dominates our culture. It results in a lack of what we all so desperately need: joy, peace, patience, and love. As a Christian woman, I need to be different. If I find joy in doing my work for the Lord nd in seeking His "Well done!" at the end of the day, I will be more likely to radiate His peace instead of being anxious. If I do my work to the best of my ability, I will not bear the burden of guilt for laziness or carelessness. If I leave the final judgement of others' work to the Lord, I will more likely radiate love and patience when I deal with them.
So the next time I find myself being cricitcal of myself or another, I need to ask myself, "Am I using God's standard, society's standard, or my own?" Then I need to find out what God's standard is and remember that He is the only one who can truly judge correctly.
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| All so different |
While sin and death mar God's creation, God never intended that everyone have the same high cheekbones, long neck, perfect features, and hourglass figures. Just as flowers, with all their varying beauty, give honor to God in their uniqueness, God also wants us to reflect His creative power in the very different ways we were made.
Comparing myself to someone else is dangerous for two reasons. First, it uses the wrong standard for our inspection. Just as our standard for physical beauty should be God's Word and not what society tells us, we also tend to use the wrong criteria for how well we have done in our activities. As a student, I depended more on what my grades said than whether I had worked "heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Secondly, it puts us in danger of two serious character flaws - pride and insecurity. If we surpass man's approval, we can become proud. If we do not measure up, we can become insecure. Whenever these two things exist in our lives, it will point to using the wrong standard in our lives.
Let us look at housekeeping, for example. Unwittingly, we adopt our standard from the picture perfect homes of magazines. Sometimes we almost apologize for the fact that people live in our home. Instead of looking to God and His ideas for how our house should be kept clean, we live in fear that our house does not measure up to other people's neat homes. It is the Lord who judges His children on how well something is done. After all, he is the Only one who looks beyond the outside and sees our heart attitudes. He knows if we have done our best with a humble spirit or if we are out to get praise from people. What matters in our housekeeping is whether or not we have pleased Him. If we shut our eyes at the end of a long day, all we need to do is say to the Lord, "I did my best today. I know I did not get everything done and the house is still not as clean as I want it, but I really did do my best."
Sometimes I hear the wrong standard being used in the way we criticize others. We might not say it aloud, but our attitude reveals that we have applied our own standard instead of God's to the situation. We need to remember God's words: "Who art though that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth." (Romans 14:4) We have no idea of what was going on in that person's life that day. We do not know what her attitude was. We do not know if he worked to the best of his ability. We do not know if she did it as an offering to God instead of getting approval from people. We just do not know the whole story.
The plague of comparing ourselves to others dominates our culture. It results in a lack of what we all so desperately need: joy, peace, patience, and love. As a Christian woman, I need to be different. If I find joy in doing my work for the Lord nd in seeking His "Well done!" at the end of the day, I will be more likely to radiate His peace instead of being anxious. If I do my work to the best of my ability, I will not bear the burden of guilt for laziness or carelessness. If I leave the final judgement of others' work to the Lord, I will more likely radiate love and patience when I deal with them.
So the next time I find myself being cricitcal of myself or another, I need to ask myself, "Am I using God's standard, society's standard, or my own?" Then I need to find out what God's standard is and remember that He is the only one who can truly judge correctly.
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