Don’t compare yourselves to who you perceive other people are today. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday.
Freedom begins when comparison ends. Your authentic persona will begin emerging when you stop comparing yourself to others.
Negative Effects of Comparison
1. Comparison Limits Our Growth
Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. -Galatians 6:4 (NLT)
Don’t compare yourself to who you perceive others are today. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday.
2. Comparison Hurts Our Relationships with Others
3. Comparison Teaches Us Scarcity
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. –Romans 12:2 (NLT)
How to Return to Eden
1. Encourage instead of envy. Cheer instead of compare.
2. Look to others as inspiration.
3. See your potential.
4. Don’t expect perfection from yourself.
5. Practice gratitude.
1 Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.
9 Afterward the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”
“I don’t know,” Cain responded. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”
10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! 11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. 12 No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain replied to the Lord, “My punishment is too great for me to bear! 14 You have banished me from the land and from your presence; you have made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me!”
15 The Lord replied, “No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him. 16 So Cain left the Lord’s presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. –Genesis 4:1-16
