A few weeks ago I was blessed to have a friend over for the
day. Her husband and I grew up together, and she I had gotten to know each
other better through doing a book study via Skype. I was looking forward to
spending the day with her and her four children. But I was also nervous. I look up to her in many ways; she seems to
have it all together when it comes to managing her home and being the wife and
mother God has called her to be. I, on
the other hand, well, have a long way to go.
Comparing ourselves with others isn’t something we intentionally
set out to do. We know that it usually
promotes either pride or self-deprecation.
But still isn’t it human nature to have those thoughts pass through our
minds from time to time?
I find these thoughts making an unwelcome entrance
sometimes. In areas where I am strong,
they take the form of pride. For
instance, one of my strengths is being a disciplined person. And when someone
mentions struggling in this area, it’s easy for me to think, “Well, I’ve got
that one covered.” (But to be honest, if
I ever got out of the habit in my regular disciplines, I’m sure I’d be
struggling the same way.)
On the opposite end, in areas where I am weak, I find that I
berate myself when I see how someone else is doing it better. I’m particularly
hard on myself when I watch mothers who don’t work outside the home. I start going down the road of how I don’t
measure up.
I have to think that I’m not the only one who fights these
thoughts (or gives in to them). Perhaps
it’s just human nature for us to look at others and compare.
One morning, out of nowhere, a particular Scripture passage
came to mind. It’s the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. If you’re
familiar with the passage, you may think of it the same way I did: The moral of
the story is that we are to take what we are given and work to increase it, to
give back to God instead of just sitting on it.
But I had never really considered the beginning of the
passage where Jesus describes that each person got different numbers of
“talents.” (in other words, a type of currency)
One servant got five, one got two, and one got one. I started thinking that possibly another
point of the story is the sheer fact that the talents weren’t distributed
evenly. If the only point of the parable was to show how two servants were
faithful and one was not, couldn’t the same point had been made had all three
servants received two talents?
Therefore, perhaps we need to look a little closer at the
fact that God gives “talents” in different measure.
Perhaps we should all view ourselves as having two
talents. We can always find someone who
has “less” and we can always find someone who has “more.” What matters is not how much we have but
instead what we are doing with what we are given.
I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I’m
going to make my focus to be faithful with the “two” talents I’ve been given
and stop giving into my mind’s temptation to look to my right and left and
compare. I am responsible for what I’ve
been given. (Of course, when we’re faithful with what we’ve been given, we will
be given more, with which we are to be faithful.)
And one final thing I noticed. The master had the same response to the
servant with five talents as he did the servant with two. “You have been
faithful with little.” He didn’t say to
the one with two, “You’ve been faithful with a little,” and to the one with
five, “And you’ve been faithful with a little more.” It was ALL little in
the big scheme of things. But despite
how little it was, both servants were commended as “good and faithful.”
May I be faithful with my two talents.
