Comparisons

I find that I am in a contest with a little black band I wear on my arm! Every few minutes I hit the app on my IPhone and see how many more steps I have made, how many calories I have burned, log in my water and drink the amount that makes the little stick figure turn green and then I wait for the green bars on proper amount of steps, at least 10,000 and I have gone over every day, it is 8:40 PM as I write this and I have 11,653 steps which is equivalent to 4.57 miles and I have burned a measly 2,024 calories. You have to burn 3,600 before you will lose a pound of unsightly fat! HA HA!! Who am I kidding? That little band has no power over me, I tell myself that every time I hit the little button to see how many lights light up! With this little computer I am wearing on my arm comes the opportunity to invite your friends to join your little circle of band wearers so you can compare how you are doing against each other. I opted OUT on that one! It is enough to compete with this little band without getting anyone else involved in my madness!  I would find myself checking in on them every few minutes also and killing myself to get at least five more steps at the end of the day than did they! Just say NO!

We do it to ourselves you know, a crowd gets together and the ladies all look each other over from top to toe to see what they are wearing and the next step is the raised eyebrow and the whisper behind the hand if it lacks even a grain of class or is the least bit tacky, and it will not be forgotten! Let me preface what I am about to say by telling you that I love to look good as much as the next lady and the Lord blessed me with good genes so I guess I was what some called pretty, however clothes were never my priority. If I had a good dress to wear to church I was happy. I didn’t grow up with much so I didn’t get used to having a new outfit except at Easter and Christmas and I am not saying that for you to feel sorry or feel anything it is simply a fact and I am a very happy, satisfied woman with what God has given to me…Have I explained that thoroughly?

OK, there were times that because I shopped at Lerner’s or other little shops that sold many of the same piece, I would run into myself at church or a gathering. I was never put out by it, it just didn’t matter, however not all women feel that way about it. Something funny happened and I know I have one reader who will vividly remember it because it was at her home that it happened. There was a gathering of ladies to visit and then hear a Bible lesson. It seems it was near the Christmas Holiday I just remember that every one was decked out in their holiday finest, all to impress each other, as there were no men present! The hostess was and is a beautiful lady, someone whom I don’t think I have ever seen a hair out of place and I would kid her and say that I knew her underwear matched her outfit, no doubt about it, thankfully it wasn’t her to which this happened. As I watched the ladies arrive, a very stunning brunette came in and you could see that she wanted to make “an entrance” and well did she deserve it! It was an outfit that surely there was only one of a kind it was beautiful! A crisp white blouse tucked into a full swirl of a skirt in bright red plaid! Across her shoulder, worn Highland style “Outlander” fans, and fastened at her waist with a broach was a scarf in the same bright red plaid of the skirt and it doesn’t end there, she had on her shining black hair a hat worn jauntily on the side of her head, yes it was also the same bright red plaid (hey I realize I have told you that three times, indulge me!). We looked at her as she posed at the door and then swept in… It was a great entrance! My sister and I decided to do a potty run before the lesson started and went up the stairs where we saw quite a vision coming through the front door…the only difference is that this lady was blonde and as I remember some years older than the bright, red plaid brunette! We kept walking trying to contain our laughter until we got in the confines of the bathroom where we were both very sorry that we hadn’t stayed downstairs just long enough to see those two women come face-to-face in their one-of-a-kind outfits! That’s when I was glad to be in my uniform black and count on my highly made-up eyes to get me through the day!

Was there a good reason to tell you that? Not really, I was just thinking about how everyone now is challenging each other to the “ice bucket” thing, which is supposed to bring attention to ALS, which is a terrible disease. Now exactly how it is supposed to help the cure I am not sure and if you want to write to me and explain I will listen, however your challenge to me would be wasted because I am not in the game of just doing it because someone else is. I hope you don’t think I am a spoilsport. I will donate $100. but please don’t chase me down with an ice bucket, I would not be happy. OK that was what started the thought… we are all a bunch of kids playing follow the leader I just wish we had better leadership to follow in our country. I will go no further since I try to stay away from politics unless I am forced or get angry enough to rant and rave! We want to make the same money as the guy who drives the bigger car and he is probably having trouble making the payments! I drove some beautiful Mercedes in my time because they were given to be debt free, but I have found that my old red van gets me from point A to point B the same way those big sedans did, so what’s the point?

OK to sum it all up, I know you are glad, 2 Corinthians 10:12 says it well, “We’re not, understand, putting ourselves in a league with those who boast that they’re our superiors. We wouldn’t dare do that. But in all this comparing and grading and competing, they quite miss the point.” In the King James it says that those comparing themselves “are not wise”, I concur!