It's so easy to look at someone's life and be disappointed by what is – or rather, what isn't – going on in yours. Someone else just landed their dream job. Or announced their engagement. Or shared that they're pregnant. Or they've bought their first house.
Really anything that someone else says or posts can get under your skin whether you want it to or not. It's easy to believe that everyone else is five steps ahead of you. Meanwhile, you have none of those things, and at least on the surface, your life has been the same for weeks, months, maybe years.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Teddy Roosevelt said that "comparison is the thief of joy," and it's absolutely true. As long as you associate your life with someone else's and see where you "fall short," you won't appreciate what you have. Everything could be going great for you, yet there's one area of your life you haven't found success in yet. If you meet or see someone who has what you have plus that one thing, suddenly you feel inadequate and insecure.
2 Corinthians 10:12 says "oh, don't worry; we wouldn't dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!" It is abundantly clear that comparing yourself to another person is not wise and will only bring you despair.
You have no idea what the future holds.
In middle school, I imagined what high school would be like, and my perception was completely off with what I experienced. In high school, I thought about what college would be like, and while I was right on some things, I didn't anticipate every experience that I had. Now, a college graduate looking to the rest of my life, I have some ideas of what I want to do, like get married, have kids, travel as much as I can, and have a job I love, for starters. But I cannot imagine everything that will happen, the good and the bad. While some may see it as terrifying, I see it as exciting.
So, what's to say that those things won't happen for you? Just because something isn't true right now doesn't mean that it won't be true forever. And even if it comes true, it may not be in the way you expect. John 13:7 says that "you do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Likewise, 1 Corinthians 13:12 reminds us that "now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." In other words, it may be hard to understand why your life seems stalled right now, but in the future, it may make more sense.
You are exactly where you are supposed to be.
It can be really frustrating to want something you don't have right now or feel impatient for the day it comes. Living in the future won't make you happy because there's no guarantee that it will actually happen, and looking to the past is pointless because you cannot go there. Even when your circumstances suck and you feel like the world is moving on without you, you are exactly where you are supposed to be.
In the famous book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People,' Dale Carnegie says that "it isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it." There is a reason why you are in this "season of life," so instead of wishing for something different, learn everything you can, grow, and be thankful for what you do have.
Plus, "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). You're not being punished; you're being tested, and you'll learn something in the end.
