Profound Thoughts

I'm sure we've all had moments when we are listening to something and someone says something that completely hits home. I don't know if it is the way they say it that makes the difference or if is just because we having been thinking about a certain subject and that person opens their mouth and gives an answer to our prayers. It's probably a combination of the two.

I was up late on Saturday night after I wrote my last post and was listening to a Christian radio station through Dish Network. There was a program called "music and the spoken word" that was playing. During this program they will have someone share a brief thought and then the choir will sing a song related to what was just being mentioned.

The conductor of the program shared a story about three women who were talking. Two of the women were going on and on about all of their children's achievements. The third woman didn't have anything wonderful to share about her child, but was genuinely happy for the other two women. Afterwards she was asked how she took the successes of these other people so well when she didn't have any successes of her own to share. She simply said: "It's much easier to celebrate than compete."

The conductor then went on to share that "Victories for others don't mean failures for us." For some reason this one line really seemed profound to me. Looking back this seems really obvious, but I think I needed a reminder that I can be genuinely happy for people and that I need to stop comparing myself to others so much.

Who cares if other people seem to have things that I want but don't have. I need to forget myself more and be more willing to praise other people's achievements. You can all be my witness that here and now I am recommitting myself to banishing the green-eyed monster that lives inside me.