COMPARISON
Life lately has been a roller coaster- (This headline has to make it’s way to the guinness book of record!) because of how often I’ve used it in the last 3 months. Generally speaking, you can’t stop speaking about the ups and downs of life, especially when you’re just trying to figure out life (Breathtaking) Mostly the hurdles of a young adult, comes from many expectations coming from different walks of life, societal, parental, peers, religious leaders, mentors, colleagues and co associates.The counts never ceases you know!
All of these people demands a kind of improvement and an height of results from the last 5 months of your life till date. Not a bad one you know! But where it becomes unhealthy is when it’s at the detriment of your journey into clarity, when it’s starts to breed in haste instead of steadiness, when it begins to echo comparison, instead of consistency, when it begins to seek people validation instead of self identity, when it begins to gradually derail you , and kick you out of track, that’s when it becomes harmful.
It's okay to demand a level of responsibility and competency from a young adult, it should be done on the ground of intentionality and not comparison!
The danger of comparison is that it gradually steals from your progress, it's like a cankerworm that is cancerous to the full course of purpose.
You begin to weigh your life according to others templates, and gradually you loose yourself in the process.
We need to draw a long rope to the the difference between learning from other people's progress and comparing ourselves to their progress! These two things are very different in definition. The former is judiciously picking lessons and knowledge on how an individual has lived their lives - it involves learning from their mistakes, progress, and what sustained them overtime, while the latter simply involves unhealthy competition resulting from what you've seen as the achievements of others.
This issues of comparison has been a strong hold fighting most parent to child relationships, and it has successfully landed a crash between parents and children. Most young children have become battered and Internally crushed as a result of unhealthy comparison of a young child with his peers!
Parents should understand each child's uniqueness and nurture it, till it becomes a strength for them.
Every young child has his/ her own peculiarities. What makes my child special? Should be a question on your lips as a parent! And not why can't my child be like my neighbors child who is outstanding!
The mistake is you never saw what's outstanding about your own child, you never paid attention to your child's strength just like your so called neighbor did.
Many children has walked the path of depression and loss of identity because of this, and that's why such child could not meet up with his responsibility societally.
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Dear young child, and if you are advancing into adulthood, hear me! I know you might have experienced unhealthy comparison one way or the other while growing up, yours might be fair, yours might be severe, yours might be unintentional, whichever category it is. Know that you can pick up back from there, you can still catch your spark again. I know you felt inferior, you felt not so good enough, or probably you felt unimportant. This is a word not to motivate you, but to tell you for a fact that you are just more than those words! Believe me. You are much more better than criticism, comparison and it's family tree.
Jeremiah 1.5 - Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Like the prophet in this passage above, he was a young lad who feared what people say, he never had the courage to stand before people, but God said to him, before you were born I knew thee!
So dear friend those people might not be able to identify who you are yet! That's why you were treated that way.
You have someone that knows your identity, your worth and your uniqueness.
Encouragement|Embrace|Young Adult|Shun Comparison|Speak Positivity
