The Grass Is Not Always Greener

Over the weekend, I started reading a book written by a famous evangelist and author, Beth Moore. The book is called So Long, Insecurity! Mark joked that it’s a self-help book, but it’s really not. It’s mostly a book written by a woman who has struggled with insecurity for most of her life and felt compelled to help others who struggle with the same thing. If you do the math here, you will probably figure out that insecurity is something I struggle with. However, that may be another post at another time… maybe not, we will see.

However, one of the chapters in this book discusses how a lot of people that struggle with a lack of security in their own selves often envy someone they perceive as “put together” or possessing a certain quality that the insecure person doesn’t. For women (okay, by women, I mean me), this usually looks something like envy of the woman who is thinner, taller, blonder, funnier, smarter or more fit than we are. But this book has done a wonderful job of reminding me that just because I see a woman who seems more put together or can run farther than me, doesn’t necessarily mean they are happier than me. 

The more I thought about this, the more I realized how true this probably is. At the times in my life when I’ve seemed the most put together, I’ve actually been the most troubled for one reason or another. I think a lot of times women tend to want to counterbalance their struggles by pretending they possess some security or feature that they really don’t. With social media networks like Facebook and Instagram, it has become so easy to hide our troubles under filtered photos of us with friends having fun and being “carefree.”

Not only did this chapter help me feel slightly better about myself, but made me more aware of the fact that I most likely brush past a lot of people who are going through something hard in their life without a second glance. This brought to mind a quote I’ve heard many times from Plato, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." I think it’s so much more important than we realize that we treat every person we come across with kindness instead of envy. This is something that I already know will not be easy for me, I envy people so much more than I should. But maybe if I lean more toward kindness, the envy will disappear on its own. J Just a few thoughts on this Monday. C’mon Friday.