Be the Best YOU Can Be

I start thinking sometimes about how my house isn't as clean as someone else's, or about how I am not as patient with my kids as someone else I know, or about how my home school plan book is not nearly half as organized as my good friend's, or goodness, why is my kid seem to get into more trouble than so and so's kid? I start feeling inadequate. My house seems messier than it did before and my kids even less well behaved. Is it all in my head? I realize that show where the Nanny comes in and tells people how to raise their awful children is specifically designed to make the rest of us feel better about ourselves. Hey, I'll even admit it works for me.

I just want to remind myself and anyone else who happens to read this, that there is always always someone out there that does something better than you, than me. Contrary wise there is always someone out there worse off than you or me. I have to remind myself to not gauge my progress by what others are doing. I think my sister in law's husband said it well. One day when I was stressing over something my kid was developmentally late with, he said "Your kid is always not doing some thing that everyone else's kid is doing." This coming from the parent of an extraordinarily brilliant child. It was beyond me to imagine that my niece could ever be behind in anything...but I suppose it is true for all of us and our kids. Our kids cannot be the best in everything...they are all going to struggle in some area that most other kids don't struggle in. Of course all those kids are struggling with something that most other kids don't. It is part of what makes us all unique. My very good friend is most excellent at keeping her house beautiful and neat. I am not. Yet I need to see what it is that I am good at. What gifts and abilities has God given me? I need not to compare that to someone else's God given gifts and abilities.