Comparing Ourselves to Other Women

Remember when I said I wasn’t going to work out?

Well, a good friend of mine introduced me to a new workout called “The Dailey Method.” There are only two words to describe it—“really hard!”

Anyway, I literally got all tangled up and bent out of shape last week while in class. As I gazed around the room in a breathless pant, I noticed everyone was toned and tiny. Apparently, it’s not a good idea to come to this place needing to lose weight. Women twice my age were doing leg squats better than me. Some of these ladies bless their hearts, actually need to visit McDonald’s drive thru a couple times a week like I do.

It appears they all have this mom thing figured out. Their kids in the daycare room don’t have syrupy hair from breakfast. They drive a Lexus and probably don’t have hamburger buns stuffed between the seats. They have their make-up on and hair in place (that is until the death trap of a work-out begins).

Satan quickly plants seeds of untruths in my mind.

I’m tempted.

Jesus girl thoughts get shoved aside by the ugly thoughts moving in. I begin thinking, “If only I could do better. If only my legs were longer. If only I looked as good as she does while doing leg lifts.”

Is it just me or have y’all had similar thoughts?

How often do you compare yourself to other women?

The Bible says we are to be imitators of Christ, NOT each other. Therefore, our ambition should be to imitate Christ…not the girl with buns of steel standing beside us glistening instead of sweating.

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children” Ephesians 5:1 (NLT).

We are to imitate Christ in everything we do. We are to be like Jesus and talk like Jesus while we’re shopping, sweating, or serving. Why? Because we are his baby girls and he wants our actions, our thoughts, and our words to be reflective of him.

Just like the Dailey Method workout is really hard, sometimes it’s hard being a Jesus girl. Imitating Christ and striving to become a P31 woman is down-right hard, especially if you are like me. I can barely sew an Awana patch on my kid’s vest. I don’t usually cook from scratch. I actually love Stouffer lasagna night so I’m not expected to cook. But wait a second…now that I’m thinking about it, I do order my bacon and ham from Tennessee so that counts as bringing my food from afar, right?

So the next time we’re tempted to believe the worst about ourselves, let’s remember that 1Thessalonians 1:6 says imitating Christ won’t be easy. It’s something we strive for. It’s something we can’t do on our own. To be successful, we must be intentional about drawing near to our heavenly daddy so we can become more like him and nobody else.