I’m going to be real with you today. Some of you really need to hear this message. Only you know your struggle. Only you know what you are settling for. Only you know the things in your life that you are accepting when you shouldn’t. Maybe that’s a health thing, a relationship thing or a friendship, or a habit. Maybe it's a comparison.

Let me tell you about comparison - comparison is running a race that you will never win. You know a lot of us look out online and wish we had their life. And some of us are wishing for a life that is worse than yours because you don’t know what they are going through. You look at a post and think “relationship goals,” and they could be going through a terrible time together. Some of you see people with all this money and think that you want that but they could just be fronting online. Some people seem happy and you wish you had their life but you don’t know that they are compensating for how low they feel. You just don’t know.

The only person that you should be comparing to is yourself. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday and not to anyone else. It’s poison to your soul. I mean that in the deepest sense possible. Deadly, deadly poison. You have a race to run that was handcrafted by God and it’s not your job or responsibility to compare yourself to something or someone you are not.

Every time you run someone else’s race you get tired, you get burnt out and exhausted. Stop comparing your life and start appreciating your life. Stop counting other people’s blessings and forgetting to count your own. We are so programmed to wish that we had what another person has, and it steals our respect and appreciation for ourselves. I know that is easier said than done because comparison is constantly in our face with social media, but i want you to ask yourself this - what are you failing to appreciate in your life? If you are looking for something else in the world it’s because you are not appreciating what you already have. I think that God gives us more when we learn to appreciate what he has already given.

So every time you catch yourself comparing, I want you to retrain your mind to say “I’m glad I have,” when you hear yourself saying “I wish I had.” That will change your life.

It’s so important that you stop wishing for the things that other people have and start appreciating what you have. And more than that, working to run the race in front of you. That takes effort. Stop wishing, and start appreciating and working for what God has planned for you.

It all starts with you.