Scrolls through IG, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and sees a “picture of success” – do you cringe? do you celebrate? do you compare? do you embrace your own journey?
This isn’t everyone’s struggle, but in a world where social media takes up so much of our time, it’s important to note that we shouldn’t allow the pictures we see to become our guide for life. See the picture and be inspired maybe, but don’t see the picture and just aim for what you see just for the sake of it or just to have what someone else has; you can have more than a good moment, more than a good picture. You can have a good, purposeful life.
Don’t put more effort into capturing a good picture than you put into creating and living a good life.
Please, sis. Please, bro.
Don’t put in all of that effort for a picture only to be miserable, empty, unsatisfied, and without true peace and joy after the picture is taken.
Please know that you can have good pictures and experience joy, peace, love, and happiness that lasts beyond the picture. It takes a relationship with God to build and maintain a good life; it’s work and it’s worth it.
Prayer. Hard Work. More Prayer. Discipline. Commitment. Growth. Waiting. Sacrifice. Affirmations. Focus. That’s some of what it takes.
On your journey to building and living a good life, don’t envy or feel bad about yourself when looking at someone’s success and don’t compare your life journey to their picture or their achievement, or their journey. You didn’t envy their tears, struggle, work, process, and sacrifice, so why envy or feel bad for yourself about their celebration?
Instead, celebrate with them. Learn from them. Encourage them because they might be worn out from what it took just to get to that point. That’s a better use of time than comparing your life to theirs.
Comparison works well for those questions on school assignments and research projects, but it doesn’t work well for your journey in life. Kick it to the curb. Envy and comparison are not good for your mental health either. We’re not meant to be the same. We’re not meant to have the same things or not meant to get them at the same time. We’ve all got different purposes in life and we didn’t all have the same start, so comparison is a waste of time.
Now, just because you should not envy others does not meant that you must walk around suspicious. Everyone didn’t earn things the right way, but there are those out there who did. That includes believers too. Don’t be fooled; God’s children are out here prospering…and some are learning, growing, and on their way to that. There are people who are truly living a good life, not a perfect one, but a GOOD one, which is far better than perfect one, by the way. (Ah, yes. GOOD is better than perfect. That’s another blog for another day.) But the ones who are living a GOOD LIFE and experiencing GOOD SUCCESS are doing so because they have committed their way to the Lord …. and they have the right to share the goodness, successes, inspiration, and things like that as much as they want. You’ll be able to tell that it’s not bragging, but it’s being thankful and boasting in the Lord.
On the other hand, many people achieve the look of success and love to flaunt it. And as quiet as it’s kept, many people actually do succeed in their own way, but all success isn’t good success. Yeap, I said it.
You can have millions but not have gotten it the right way. You can have popularity, but we all know that does not mean you’re successful. You can write the book, have the job, be in the relationship and still be miserable and unfulfilled if you don’t have and grow in your relationship with God or if you don’t follow God’s plan.
People can seem to be “living the life” and will make it clear that they got it without trusting and committing to God like you’ve been taught to or like you’re trying to. They may even make fun of you for trusting in God and taking the road less traveled. Be encouraged. Psalm 37 (verse 1, 7, and the whole chapter) encourages believers not to be discouraged or fret when this happens. Read it.
It may seem like people are succeeding without really putting in the work. It may seem like there’s some kind of short cut, but there’s not. If someone tells you there is a short cut, they are fooling themselves and may be fooling you. But those who delight in the Lord, trust in the Lord, wait on the Lord, and commit their ways to the Lord are the ones who experience true and lasting GOOD SUCCESS (not just financially); they are the ones who inherit the earth. They are the ones who live the GOOD life.
There’s not a good enough camera to capture that.
Kesha's Korner 