Life’s Progress Through God’s Corrective Lenses

We should never look at our own ‘life’s progress’ through someone else’s life. I realized that a few years back when I met a family who had just moved into our area. They had a beautiful home with a large section overlooking countryside. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Upon reflecting on what she had accomplished, I saw within my own life lack of progress. We were still in our smallish house with a growing family of 4 kids. We were bursting at the seams, and life was often stressful. The kids had no space of their own. Most of the time I was okay with it, but now-and-then it would get on top of me. I saw very little progress in our finances.

As I thought about this one day, I realized I was looking at this all wrong. I believe God was showing me that I was looking at our own financial progress through someone else’s life – making an unhealthy comparison. When I began to look at our progress through our own lives, I saw that we had progressed much. Not only had we progressed financially, but spiritually and as individuals as well. I looked back over my family’s past years as well as the present time, and I could clearly see how much better off we had become now than how we were back then. I saw our life’s progress through God’s corrective lenses.

You see, looking at ourselves through someone else’s life clouds our vision of where we’re really at. We need to have a new perspective, and look at our progress by reflecting on our own lives and what God has accomplished in and through us – rather than viewing our lives through someone else’s life. It is only then that we will come to realize how much we have actually progressed.

Of course, we haven’t arrived yet, we are still on our journey – but it’s our journey. We need to remember that and be focused on our own journeys, not on someone else’s journey. God has tailor-made us for different life adventures!