In this day and age, in the year 2016, we have so many outlets by which to compare ourselves. Each generation that has come before us, have also had their levels of comparison, but aspects continue being added all the time. There are a bunch of areas I could delve into today, but I’m going to stick with the one I know the most intimately…comparison of self.
{Although I’m writing today’s blog from a woman’s perspective, I know that there are some great guys out there that read it too….so if you want to continue reading, I would like to encourage you to take a portion of this and share it with your wife or girlfriend, or even your mom or sister. What a blessing it will be for them to hear compliments from a man they love.}
When I was thinking about this topic, it occurred to me that the most perfectly created woman of the world was Eve…the first woman. She was fashioned by a loving God who chose characteristics of His own to give this woman everything she needed. Eve was made for Adam; not to serve him but to be a helpmate to him; to be a support and comfort; to be a friend and a lover. The first woman literally had everything! A husband that was perfect for her, a garden to tend & be nourished by, beauty beyond anything that had been created yet, and best of all, she could walk alongside the God of the Universe and had conversations with Him whenever she wanted. Who needs a cup of coffee in the morning when you can get to hang out with the Lord!
Yet…that wasn’t enough for Eve…
Genesis 2:18 is a beautiful statement and I want to share it two different versions so you can truly grasp the joy God had in creating woman:
“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.” (HCSB)
“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (ESV)
We are a complement and a fit helper to our husband. I don’t want to turn this into an argument, but I do wholeheartedly believe that the man is the head of the household (if you are married) and as a wife, I am called to be a support…not subservient, but not overbearing either. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my almost 26 years of marriage where I have not honored the God-given position in our marriage that God has intended. But oh the joy that enters our household when I am working alongside my husband! We have a true partnership, but the buck stops with him.
If you are a single woman, or a single mom with kids at home…let me be clear that you are not lacking! God will give you the strength and resources to fulfill the call that He has on your life as well. He will also give you men in your life who will be able to come alongside you when you have moments of need ~ please do not believe the lies of this world that says you don’t need a man. You are missing out on the blessing that God intended to be a partner between men and women!
But let’s get back to the ever so fun topic of self-comparison….
Reading further into the chapters in Genesis, we see a very short story of Eve’s life in the Garden of Eden. Just before Eve was created, we see in Genesis 2:15-17 it says, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” It was after these verses, that God made every living creature and Adam named them all; and then seeing that there wasn’t a partner suitable for Adam, God created Eve. All was good and all was beautiful and all was as God intended. And just a few verses later, we read the opening verse in Chapter 3 of Genesis, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
What??? Studying these verses made me realize two things:
- The commandment not to eat of the tree of knowledge was given to Adam. It was his responsibility to convey this instruction to the woman God created for him.
- What in the world happened between the good life for Adam and Eve, being fruitful and walking with God…to Eve chatting it up with a serpent and getting pulled in to the trap of the enemies lies.
{and one more thing…do you ever think about how God had the serpent talking…hello world of ‘Narnia’….seriously, I do wonder about that part of how Adam was able to give all the animals names was because he was able to talk with them and find out what they liked…I hope I didn’t lose any of you here…just where my mind wanders sometimes.}
Okay, so here we have Eve alone in the garden and she’s talking with the serpent. He seems to have asked her just one question, and it very quickly turned into a downward spiral. In the midst of that, I wonder if Eve was trying to prove how well she knew what God said by adding more emphasis to the story. Genesis 3:3 has Eve saying, “but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” God never said anything about touching the fruit, only eating the fruit.
The serpent continued on, goading her to twist her thinking. The serpent used Eve against herself….making her doubt that she was indeed a perfect creation.
The serpent didn’t have to show her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and every other commercial on tv showing people having a “better” life than she had. All he did was make her question herself. He made her doubt her identity as a woman created by God. He spoke to her instead of to Adam (who was incidentally standing right next to Eve when this whole debacle occurred…Gen. 3:6) giving her a misguided sense of authority. Don’t get me wrong, Adam and Eve were completely together in this journey of disobedience. They were equal partners in this deception.
What is it in us that were are tempted to compare ourselves to others? To compare our life to the “what if” life we think is out there that we are somehow missing out on? That’s where we as women struggle so much. Some more than others, some days more than others, but we all struggle with remembering our identity…our God-given, God-created identity.
We. Are. Enough.
Genesis 1:27-28 declares, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that does on the earth.”
God gave us everything that we need! We are created in HIS OWN IMAGE! God is the Creator of the Universe, so if there is nothing lacking in Him, there is nothing lacking in us that cannot be made whole through having life in Christ.
We do not need to compare ourselves to anyone. We need to get out of our own heads and stop believing the lies from the serpent (satan) because when we do, we miss out on the blessing God intends to daily give us. Genesis 1:31a says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
There you have it my friend….you are very good and God is pleased with you! Look to Him and trust in your identity in Him!
Blessings,
René
Broken & Blessed~Adventures in Gratutide! 