{"id":6682,"date":"2020-08-30T17:40:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-30T07:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6682"},"modified":"2020-08-30T17:40:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T07:40:59","slug":"the-comparison-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-comparison-game\/","title":{"rendered":"The Comparison Game"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Talents, Blessings and Spiritual Gifts Part 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Comparison Game<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ereeny Mikhail<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I am talented at anything.\u201d
\u201cIf only I was prettier or smarter.\u201d
\u201cIf I am not one of the best at it, then I am not talented.\u201d
\u201cI just wish I had more money.\u201d
\u201cBut so-and-so is more spiritual than me.\u201d
\u201cI am not worthy enough.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many times have you heard someone you know\nsay one of these statements or something similar? In fact, I think most of us\nhave fallen into that trap at some point in our lives. In this day and age, we\nare exposed to so much information and content via the internet, social media,\nbooks, talks and the like. And often, the line between what is true and false,\nright and wrong, and good and bad, becomes blurred. We see an incredibly\ntalented individual and we think there\u2019s no point trying because we will never\nbe as good. We see people share their success and think what we have is not\nenough. And we see one another spiritually progress and feel we are left\nbehind, drowned in our own sin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the greatest pitfalls of how we\nperceive our talents, blessings and spiritual gifts, is comparison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oxford dictionary defines a talent (n). as\n\u2018a natural aptitude or skill\u2019. This natural aptitude or skill can come in many\nforms. Some of us are good speakers, some of us are artistic, some of us are\nfinancially gifted, some of us are talented at sports, some of us are musically\ninclined and so on. However, what I find most striking about the definition is\nit does not in any way state that we need to be at the top of the game. We\nsimply should just know how to do a certain thing to be talented. St Paul, in II\nCorinthians 10:12<\/strong>, states, \u201cFor we dare not class ourselves or compare\nourselves with those who commend themselves. But they are measuring themselves\nby themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take this for example, two women take a\npainting class together. Both women had good paintings, and enjoy painting, but\none painting is totally abstract, and the other is perfect to the last stroke.\nNow, let me pose the question. Who is more talented? Is it the woman who had an\nabstract painting or the woman who is a perfectionist? The answer is actually\nboth. Not one painter is better or more talented. Both are there for a purpose.\nOne artwork is for the person who enjoys looking at something relaxed and\nexpresses a bit of chaos in their art. The other is for the eye that loves to\nsee everything in a particular place at a particular time. The point of the\nstory is talent is not defined as something you are better at than someone\nelse. It is defined as something that someone just naturally knows how to do,\nwhich in this case, both women enjoyed the activity, and knew how to do it, in\ndifferent ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the key to recognising your talent\nis stop comparing your talents to other people. That very person that you look\nat and think that your talents are insignificant compared to, probably looks at\nyou in the same light. This breeds jealousy, contempt, insecurity and so much\nmore that is harmful to our inner selves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further to this, what kind of friend do you\nwant to be? The one that compares yourself and is trying to do better than\nthose around you, or the one that supports, encourages and tries to build the\ntalents of those around us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we stop comparing ourselves to others, we\nbegin to see the beauty in the differences we possess. We see each individual\nas part of the body of Christ. A fearfully and wonderfully made masterpiece,\nthat could never compare to another. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talents, Blessings and Spiritual Gifts Part 1 The Comparison Game By Ereeny Mikhail \u201cI don\u2019t think I am talented at anything.\u201d \u201cIf only I was prettier or smarter.\u201d \u201cIf I am not one of the best at it, then I am not talented.\u201d \u201cI just wish I had more money.\u201d \u201cBut so-and-so is more spiritual … Continue reading “The Comparison Game”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[148,435,372,304,107,133],"class_list":["post-6682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-blessing","tag-comparison","tag-gift","tag-support","tag-talent","tag-unity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6684,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6682\/revisions\/6684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}