Gardening and Comparing

 

Yesterday my husband told me I needed to harvest my radishes.  Some were starting to go to seed.

So after work I went out and picked a bunch of them as well as my second picking of lettuce.

Odd as it is, radishes are among my favorite foods on the planet, and my dad loves them too.

So I sent a picture of my harvest with a note wishing they were close enough to share.

In response, I received a picture of their radishes- 1/4” green leaves pushing up through the soil.

Now it could be easy to think I’m the better gardener.  

Which would be blatantly false.  

My dad is a master gardener.

I am a lazy gardener.  While I did actually hoe some weeds once already, I leave a lot to chance because of my lack of consistency.

And my husband did all the bed preparation and planting even though I’m the one who likes to eat vegetables.  

However, we have had an insanely warm May.  

And my dad says their May was one of the coldest he could remember.

Sometimes the pictures don’t give all the information.

The same is true in social media pictures, advertisements and the incomplete pictures we assume are accurate when we look at the lives and accomplishments, or perceived failings, of those around us.

Rarely are we right.

And this is one of Satan’s tools.

As President Bonnie L Oscarson admonished, “The adversary would have us be critical or judgmental of one another. He wants us to concentrate on our differences and compare ourselves to one another. You may love to exercise vigorously for an hour each day because it makes you feel so good, while I consider it to be a major athletic event if I walk up one flight of stairs instead of taking the elevator. We can still be friends, can’t we?

We as women can be particularly hard on ourselves. When we compare ourselves to one another, we will always feel inadequate or resentful of others. Sister Patricia T. Holland once said, “The point is, we simply cannot call ourselves Christian and continue to judge one another—or ourselves—so harshly.””

Virtually all humans have areas of insecurity.

Some are more physically obvious than others.

Some are going through a cold season of life and may appear aloof, slow to learn and grow, or perhaps just got planted a bit later.

Some may be in a thriving time where it seems the golden touch has arrived.  But you don’t know their past seasons, or the scorching they are about to take through the refiners fire in the next season. 

So be kind.  

Give grace. 

And remember- sometimes the pictures don’t give all the information.