Compare and Contrast

You wrote those papers in high school, right? I'm sure you did, we all did.

Now, it seems to me that some people did not get the memo- but high school is over! Generally speaking, the walk, the graduation, all that jazz is an indication that you have crossed over into a new part of your life called adulthood. That means, you should be an adult. That means that some of the behaviors that were common and even encouraged in high school must now stop. That includes the compare and contrast.

There are the three degrees of glory given to us by an Eternal God. The potential for the highest degree is Eternal. This refers to both the potential for joy and happiness, and the number of souls who reside there. It is not "God's Top 20". There is a standard for what it takes to live there with Him, but the standard does not include a number of admitted souls.

That means that you don't need to have one more kid than your neighbor. You don't need to go to one more church meeting than your neighbor. You don't need to do one more act of kindness than your neighbor.

This also means that you can't excuse poor behavior because of your neighbor. "Well, Sister so-and-so only does 75% of her visiting teaching, so, as long as I get in 80%, I'm good."

This also means that you don't need to do everything that your neighbor is doing. It's okay if the meal you end up bringing in to a family is pizza and a salad, even if Sister so-and-so made a 5-star restaurant style meal, starting with butchering her own chicken.

All too often, we excuse our bad behavior because of someone else's behavior. "Well, the whole Relief Society was gossiping, I couldn't stay out of it." On the other end, we feel pride in our behavior because of another sister's behavior. Or, we sell ourselves short and don't do as well at something as we could have, because we are okay with it being just better than the other person.

Forget the comparing. Don't pay attention to what they are doing. Do your best at your task, and let others do what they can at theirs.