Yesterday after church, I was invited to a Bible Study/lunch hosted by some of the women of our church. Initially, my response to the invitation was "Maybe next time" because honestly I wanted to go home and take my after-church nap lol. I was asked again and was told that it was going to be a really nice time. I thought about it and decided to go.
Six of us met at KeKe's restaurant for food and fellowship. We began with a word of prayer by our hostess, then chatted a bit before placing our orders, and again as we waited on our food. A bit later our food arrived and we all dug in lol. I had a tuna melt with fries and everyone else had breakfast meals: hotcakes, waffles, french toast, sausage, potatoes, and ham. Everything was delicious.
After we finished our meals, we decided to go outside to have Bible Study. KeKe's has an outdoor sitting area so we found some benches away from the sun and started our study. Our Bible Study hostess found a study by Heather Lindsey about contentment. She gave us all a copy of the study prior to going outside for us to follow along.
The study began with a small passage from Heather sharing that Christmas had just passed and that in the midst of being surrounded by family, friends, going to office parties and seeing tons of advertisements, "it is so easy to get tricked into comparing our lives to those we see and those we encounter." Some of the questions from the study were: Who do you find yourself constantly comparing yourself to? What is it about these people that you find yourself attracted to or envious toward? Why do you think we have these feelings of comparison?
It was very interesting to hear the different perspectives from everyone. These are my responses to the above questions:
Who do you find yourself constantly comparing yourself to? Honestly, I've never had this issue. That's not to say I haven't had any personal struggles, but I've never had an issue with comparing myself to anyone.
What is it about these people that you find yourself attracted to or envious toward? See answer above.
Why do you think we have these feelings of comparison? While this was not an issue of mine, I can understand why it can be an issue for some. I believe that some of the biggest reasons people compare themselves to others is they feel inadequate and that they're not focused on the path and purpose that Christ has set for them.
The study concluded with us discussing some of the things the world tells us, versus what the Word tells us, and how we can get out of the rut of comparison and discontentment (points that Heather included in the study).
I had a wonderful time yesterday and I'm so glad that I went. So now I would like to ask you, are you content? Do you have any issues with comparing yourself to others? Please share your experience with this topic. I would also like to give you a word of encouragement for the week:
Be content with where God has you. Be content with the person that you are. Be content with what you have. Keep your eyes focused on Christ and off of others. Focus on you, set your goals, walk the path that God has set for you.
P.S. Contentment doesn't mean that you're okay with things that you may want to change in your life. It means that you appreciate where you are now while you work toward where you want to be.
Helpful scriptures from the study:
John 7:24, Philippians 3:19-20, Acts 5:29, Galatians 1:10, Isaiah 26:3
Blessings,
Audrey
No comments:
Post a Comment