Compare (verb) com·pare: estimate, measure, or note the similarity or dissimilarity between.

The comparison game: a game that we all play, comparing our looks, how we act, our financial status, if we have the newest technology or clothes, etc. In this day and age, we compare everything about ourselves to the people around us. Does their hair look better than mine? Are their clothes nicer? Do they have a newer phone than I do? We even compare how "together" our life is.

When I was in middle school going into high school, I was OBSESSED with what other people thought of me. It was so bad that if someone told me that they didn't like what I was wearing, I would never wear it again. It wasn't until my junior year of high school that I began to be proud who I was and dress how I wanted to dress (sweatpants and T-shirts all day, every day) without the worry of what everyone around me thought. Looking back on my last 6 years in school, I enjoyed school so much more when I wasn't worried about my outward appearance. Throughout those years, God showed me who I was in Him and that I was made in His image, not the image of the world. My relationship with Christ started to grow when I stopped comparing myself to others and started comparing myself to Christ.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me the song "You Say" by Lauren Daigle. Because I grew up a choir kid, I tend to listen to the melodies and harmonies before I listen to the lyrics. If a song sounds catchy, I'm more likely to keep listening to it and that's how it was with this song. The more I listened to it, the more I listened to the lyrics and the more I realized the truth that was behind the song.

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?
Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know.

You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
And You say I am held when I am falling short
And when I don't belong, oh You say that I am Yours
And I believe, oh I believe
What You say of me
I believe

The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity, Taking all I have and now I'm laying it at Your feet
You have every failure God, You have every victory.

* * *

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!" — Ephesians 2:4-5

We are so undeserving of His love, yet He loves us anyway. Even when we mess up and make a mistake, He is always standing there with open arms, welcoming us back. When we don't feel like we're 'enough' He reminds us that we are His and to Him, we are more than enough. He doesn't need us, yet He wants us anyway.

I challenge you when you don't feel enough, to remind yourself that to the creator of the universe, You. Are. Enough. and You. Are. His.