One size doesn't fit all

"what is that to you?"

John 21:22

I got one of my favorite lessons today.  But when I say it's one of my favorites, I mean I love to teach it to others.  I don't necessarily enjoy having it taught to me...

And I'm pretty sure it's been taught to me before, but it's the kind of lesson one has to learn more than once, ya know?

It was in a conversation with one of my Amazing and Awesome kids.  We were having one of those difficult talks wherein I was having to explain why we, as parents, have had to make a certain decision.  Our kids are wonderful about accepting "no" when they'd rather hear "yes" from us, but some decisions are harder than others.   And in this case, I had said "no" to one of them, and "yes" to the other. 

Don't you hate when that happens?

And so I had to try to explain that the situations were not the same.  It was not apples-to-apples.  They are two different children, three years apart, and what's appropriate for one is sometimes not appropriate for the other.   So their father and I do our best to make wise decisions, which sometimes can seem unfair. 

So today I had to ask my unhappy offspring to try not to compare.  "It's not the same situation.  You need to trust that this is what's right for you, and not worry about what we feel is right for your sibling."

And while I said it, I heard God saying it to me.  I remembered what I already know about God's wisdom, and what He allows in the lives of His children.   I thought about Peter's words to Jesus, about John.  In John 21, it says that Peter turned around, saw John, and said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?"  And Jesus replied, "What is that to you?  You follow Me." 

I just love that line.  It's the gentle, compassionate version of "Mind your own business." 

It is so easy to look at someone else and want what they have.  Their home, their car, their career, their troubles...  Or their seeming lack of troubles.  I am, in general, very content with the life that I have, even though it's not perfect.  But every once in awhile, I look at some aspect of someone else's life with a little bit of longing.

But the situations are not the same.  You, me, him, her, them, us.  He knows what He's doing.  Some things that happen to each of us are the good or bad consequences of our decisions; other things are trials or blessings from Him.  But either way, it's a bad thing to compare ourselves to someone else, no matter how similar the situations appear to be.  It takes away trust, and leaves discontentment in its wake.

Face front, take up your cross, and follow Him.

~ "You, Lord God, know Your servant well" ~

2 Samuel 7:20

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