The Thief

     

   There she stood in her princess dress.  She had spent the morning twirling, curtseying, singing into her microphone and pushing her puppy in the "princess carriage" aka the baby doll stroller.  She now stood still with a sunken look on her face.  I ask her what is wrong and she says "I am not the real snow white because the real snow white has a red headband and I don't have a red head band." I go to her hair bow drawer and pull out a gold headband and a turquoise headband "but mommy those aren't red." I am just about to explain that we can pretend they are red when she whizzes by me grabs her brothers toboggan and proudly exclaims "now I am a princess." 


          In that moment I breathe a sigh of relief and thank God that she is 3 and she is able to use her imagination and pretend.  I also feel a pain in my stomach and heart as I think of all the comparison that is to come in her life in the not so far away future.  Comparison...it is the thief that steals our joy. Comparison is what stole her moments of twirling and caused her to pause and realize that she was missing something, albeit a red headband but it was something and it took away her fun, if only for a moment, and made her feel as though she wasn't measuring up. 


          I use my 3 year old as an example of how comparison stole her joy but how many times have you and I let comparison cause us to forget our blessings and wish we had, looked like, were doing something that someone else had or was.  It is spending a solid 10 minutes airing up a pool raft for my child to have it popped in 3 seconds.  My lungs are still aching from airing it up and the fun of the pool raft is gone immediately.  The deflating feeling that comparison causes you to feel is pure misery. 
   
       I want my daughter to be original.  I want my daughter to be confident and joyful in her shoes.  Wishing you were in someone else's shoes is a sure way to live a miserable life. Comparison causes us to hit the pause button, to stop living our lives and using our blessings and instead we are in the same spot sulking wishing for more when amazing things are right in front of us.   I know there will be days when comparison steals her joy or my joy or your joy but may we all wake up from our self doubt and count our blessings and be thankful and grateful and live life to the fullest.  May we ditch the red headband, find a crazy toboggan and celebrate life, our life!