Get Your Own Prescription

I'm at the zoo, and I find myself scrutinizing other moms. How fitted are their jeans, how trendy is their haircut, what kind of tops and shoes do they wear that are cute without being ridiculously impractical: In short, where does all this put me on the "frump-factor" scale. I've taken even a family trip to the zoo and found a way to be tuned in to other women and their ways of doing things, wearing things, and handling life. I've simultancously rated myself and rated them, with neither side winning.



We as women seem to be always looking around us. It happens in playdates, coffee break rooms, pageant practices, homeschooling conferences, soccer sidelines and Walmart aisles. It is partly our relational nature, and partly our insecurities, which leave us analyzing and asking: " How do I measure up as a woman, a mom, a professional? What am I missing that I should know? How can I get more of what they have?" I have found these types of comparisons inhibiting in my own life and walk.



How can I stop myself, I wonder? We were intended to spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not elbow one another on a race to get there first or best. Then I realized, looking around, and mapping another's daytimer over my own is as effective as it would be for me to force myself to wear someone else's prescription sunglasses. Regardless of how cute or pricey the frames were, or how great they looked on the other gal, I would be left with disorienting, blurry vision and a headache. The solution is to get my prescription from above on how to instruct my children, care for my home, navigate my career, proceed in my ministry, even select my wardrobe. The goal would then be, not to surpass or out-do other women, but to walk cheerfully in the way that God has laid out for me.



The next time you are tempted to look laterally, and force another person's prescription on your own, look up. We can certainly share experiences, and learn from another's approach to life, but then to let God use it to show you what He wants that to look like in Your life. Keep Him your source, especially in the challenging tasks before us as women.



And when you become aware that it is time to update your own prescription, don't look around you for what looks best on everyone else and try them on for size. Go straight to the Source and let Him realign your vision with what is most important to Him. Let Him help you stop staring sideways and look God-ways. He will give you aprescripton all your own. And you know what? It will even look great on you!