The Not Good Enough Game

She has better clothes than I do. Her hair is prettier than mine. Her skin is flawless.  Mine isn't. She has a bigger house. Nicer car. Her children are more polite than mine. She is in better shape than me. Her blog is better. She has better ideas than me. Ever play this game? The not good enough game. Did I mention I HATE this game? As much as I hate it, I find myself getting caught up in it all the time. I think comparing ourselves to one another is probably a pretty natural thing to do but why? Why do we compare ourselves to one another? And what good comes from it? Personally, I can't think of one good thing that comes from it. All that happens to me when I compare myself to others is that I'm left feeling like absolute crap-ola, like I'm not good enough.

I started this blog as a way to document what goes on in my crazy, awesome family but also as a way to document how easy it is to help others and how to get my kiddos involved. As I am a relatively inexperienced new blogger, I often stumble upon "new to me" blogs. I read through them. Check out the pictures, the crafts, the recipes and I find myself saying I'm not good enough to do this. When did something I wanted to do for fun turn into something that makes me feel like I can't stand up to the competition? Is this a normal feeling or have a gone crazy? Potentially both I suppose.

On a day when I was feeling particularly low and not quite good enough, I read this:  

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. ~ Corinthians 12:4-6

I started thinking about what this means and the message rang loud and clear.God gives us all gifts and it's our job to find out what those gifts are and use them to the best of our abilities. The idea wasn't to be jealous of somebody else. The idea is to enjoy others gifts, just as others enjoy ours. If we all had the same aptitudes and abilities we would be bored to tears and who wants that?  So who cares if her blog has better looking recipes or if she can craft and I can't? Who cares if she takes amazing photographs and I don't? My job is to ENJOY what others excel at. The purpose of starting this blog was for ME to get a sense of fulfillment from what I was doing not to feel like I wasn't good enough. I am going to focus on that now and really enjoy what other's have to offer instead of comparing myself to them.

How do you get over feeling like you can't measure up?