I know you sometimes feel ordinary but you’re not.
You are one of a kind ~ a unique and beautiful blend of all God wants you to be.
You may feel invisible … like you’re just one of millions of others.
But there’s no comparison. God sees you friend.
And when God sees you, He sees someone He loves.
Listen as He whispers…”You are precious and honored in my sight …. and I love you.” Is 43:4
He also sees someone He knows.
“You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.” Ps 139:1
Since God knows you, has a purpose for you and loves the way He made you, I’m confident He wants you to feel the same way. Watch, listen and let Him sing these truths over your heart today. {And if you’re reading this in email, click here to watch it online.}
You really are…
Beautiful
Loved
Cherished
Chosen
Treasured
Sacred
You are His!
May God’s sweet affirmations replace all those comparisons. As you identify, understand and embrace who HE created you to be, I’m praying that like the psalmist, you can learn to say with confidence, “Lord, You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb, I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Ps. 139:13-14)
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Want to find out more about who God created you to be?
Here’s a link to a FREE Spiritual Gifts Assessment to see what your gifts are!
It’s FREE for everyone!
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Today’s GiveAway: I’m giving away 5 copies of the personality assessment that I talk about in my book A Confident Heart, In chapter 8, I share an in-depth section about personalities and how our unique traits play a key role in our God-given purpose. Today’s giveaway is called Wired That Way Personality Profile and includes a time-tested profile with definitions, instructions to eliminate confusion, a detailed explanation of your scores, and a handy team-building chart that shows how the different Personalities interact.
Enter to win: Share a little bit about what God is speaking to your heart or showing you today through my P31 devotion, this blog post and/or music video. Can’t want to hear from your heart. Simply click “share your thoughts” below. {And if you’re reading this in email, click here.}
Read my Encouragement for Today devotion The Comparison Trap.
Discover more from Renee Swope
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This P31 devo is really speaking to me. Especially the line that says “I was helping where I was needed but not where I was gifted.” I’m looking forward to doing the spiritual gift assessment to learn where God has gifted ME instead of where I think I SHOULD be. One ministry I do feel called to do, yet completely inadequate is co- leading the womens ministry at my church. I believe this may be our topic for our upcoming monthly meeting. Thank you for your insight and for sharing your God-given gift with others!
My husband and I have been married for about 3 1/2 years. We’ve had more than our share of roller coaster rides. We’ve been to countless counselors. We’ve dealt with cheating. We’ve dealt with separation. We are currently back together trying to work out all of our issues. It is very challenging because, like the old saying say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks! We are trying and learning every day…every HOUR even. But we are starting to see more ups coming our way and the downs being dealt with quicker and with more love at the heart.
I am so blessed and honored to be a part of this group to share with and hear from everyone else. God bless each and every one of us!
As a working mom and wife it is so hard to have the confidence it takes come days. Just this week I was having a “breakdown” of sorts saying that I can’t do everything by myself and that I feel like I am a bad mom and wife for not keeping up with our home and such things. I realize that i am not doing things by myself, He is always with me! I just have to remember that everyday. I am thankful for a very helpful husband and hate that I took out my frustrations on him that day. He is understanding and just wonderful. Thank God for sending him to me. 🙂
Good morning everyone! (seem to get this a day later than everyone else)
God started trying to show me how loved I am a few years ago. I would come home from work and my daughter would run to the front door…..mind you, she was probably 13-14 at the time….and throw her arms around me saying, “Mom! you are home!” I was confounded(?), I can clearly remember asking myself, “Why does she love me so much…what is so great about me?”
Soon after, God started opening my eyes to how much my husband loves me. For me, the first 10 years of our marriage was hard, probably because of my unrealistic expectations, but hard nevertheless. (In my eyes) I was never good enough, there was alot of fighting, he is a choleric personality, I am a melancholy, neither of us understanding each other and me always focusing on the negative. Even when it started getting better, I kept living in the past. But now, even during an arguement, God has enabled me to see the love and passion my husband has for me. Sometimes I sit and cry over the revelation of it.
Now, God is showing me how much He loves me. Already not feeling adequate, I came to Christ thinking He was the answer to all my problems, well, He is, but not the way I was thinking He should be. Again, unrealistic expectations. When things didn’t change the way I thought they should, I began to feel unloved by God, not good enough, not performing well enough, etc. My heart grew hard and I lost hope in Him and walked around with a negative “in Christ” attitude. BUT NOW…through this study He is showing me who He really is, not who I had made Him out to be. He is showing me who I am, not what Satan had convinced me of, but who God says I am….beautiful, loved, cherished, and sacred!!
As my perspective of Him changes, and my perspective of myself changes, my perspective on life is changing….it is looking better everday!! ♥
Thank you for sharing Ladena
I see myself in your story too!! It amazes me how similar many of us women on this journey are dispite our dividers t circumstances
Our God is an amazing God of hope and love!!!
Karen
This was such a sweet morning as I read this blog. He reminded me just how much he loves me. I recently got a promotion at work and have not had as much time to do this study because of that but he reminded me this morning that I need to get back on track. I need to get back on the path he has sit out for me.
I have a really hard time with the comparison trap!!! I always feel like someone can do it better, have a better idea or are more spiritual mature than me. I have been working on this and pray I can finally just look at myself the way the Lord does!!!
First of all I want to say to you Renee & all the ladies online taking part in this great Bible Study “A Confident Heart” it’s been a personal journey like no other… and I love Mercy Me – YOU ALL ARE BEAUTIFUL IN HIS EYES!
I loved my encouragement for today’s devotion “Comparison Trap”…. you know I thought once I left High School I’d stop the whole comparing me to them… But I still do it, everywhere I look work, TV, shopping mall- I always wish I could look like that- but I like what your friend Genia said ” Every tie we compare ourselves with someone else, we can never measure up because we’re comparing our insides with our outsides”
And in all honesty- When I watched Renee on video- I compare—I wish I knew as much as she does, I wish I could be as open and talented like she is, I wish I had as much faith…. She is so pretty!!! it’s terrible- and it’s almost automatically done… sorry Renee it’s just true how we are wired to cut ourselves down??? Chapter 8 whew…hard one! Lord Help Me!!!!
Aloha from Hawaii xoxoxoxox
Hi Donna
I am happy to see and read you here this morning. I hadn’t noticed any posts from you lately and have been thinking and praying for you
Thank you for your honest comments. I too thought I’d eventually grow up and out of this comparison trap, but like you I find myself doing it daily in my mind watching other stronger, more faithful, beautiful women around me. My prayer for ALL of us women struggling with this is that God through Renee’s powerful example and book will set us ALL free!
Have a blessed day Donna!
Karen
Hi Karen!!! I so happy to hear from you!!! I hope all is well with you- I know right- the whole comparison trap- UGH! I just need to always remember ” I AM GOD’S MASTERPIECE – HE HAS CREATED ME”
Thank you Karen for always praying for me! I too pray that with the help of this great online bible study and “A Confident Heart-that all us women will be set FREE”
Have a Joyous Day!
xoxoxo Aloha from Hawaii- Donna
This is big for me right now. God has been showing me that He created me just as I am and I am good. I am really working with Him on loving myself, accepting myself, knowing myself and not comparing myself to others. It’s a lot but with Him it is all good. Thanks for your post and encouragement and truth today.
The Lord is really working on me and it feels great. I am beautifull and I don’t need anybody else to compare with I did it so much it made me I’ll. I have even forgiven my husband for dissapering from my life and know that it’s not my fault your bible study taught me that. I see a diffrence in me and that makes me joyfull.
God is showing me to be more confident… showing me that if I hide in HIM I’ll be ok… but I can’t hide from him or his will and purpose… I need to loose my fear of rejection and believe for myself what I encourage others to believe in….
Wow, where did you get all these women on line. You only had a few the regular’s you must have called them to join in. Like i said you have a certain group, i have shared and you treated me like an outcast. 🙁 Just like the world, you have your own group of women. Only five, one from Canada, and five others. Sad, i have tried to join in and i don’t even get a answer back.
I really appreciated the pray from the devotional: “Dear Lord, thank You that I’m Your masterpiece, created anew in Christ Jesus so I can do good things You planned for me long ago. I want to stop comparing myself with others so I can become who You created me to be. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
I had a rough afternoon with my 17 year old. Not anything new, but she hit one of those spots deep inside that is from middle school when I didn’t dress well enough. Then in an office in LA when I didn’t dress well enough. Today she was telling me again that I wasn’t dressed well enough.
I spent the day painting my bathroom and had changed into my paint stained overall short for the job after the dentist. I spent about 5 hours painting and listening to Air1 radio. I praise God that as His child, I am always, “Dressed well”…in the blood of Jesus with a Robe of righteousness. Nice way to end my day. thanks Renne
Comparison – Sometimes its not a bad thing. Its how we make friends. We compare ourselves to another and decide we have commonalities and pursue becoming friends.
But mostly comparison is for me about more and less. They have more ….Hair, $$, Material goods, degrees, opportunities,are more coordinated, are more fit, or are less overweight, are less impatient, it can go on and on.
Sometimes in comparing – we compare ourselves to ourselves, and we aren’t usually generous or kind with ourselves. I didn’t do as well today. I didn’t get as much done as the other day. I wasn’t as patient with someone as yesterday.
We didn’t do all those things we intended to.
Comparison often leads to envy. I wish I was as much ……or less……I wish I had………..or didn’t have……..
It can be a very dangerous cycle, all that self talk in our heads that we often don’t realize we are saying.
Thank you for this book and this chapter. For helping us to turn away from these thoughts.
It was eye opening to me that I am comparing my insides to another person’s outside. An interior to an exterior, who doe that? The inside of something is never like the outside nor was it mean’t to be. The inside is the substance, the character, personality and unique qualities. I need to remember this for myself and also when looking at others. I only see their outside not the inside which is their unique qualities. Sometimes I forget this and I judge my family members by their outside appearance and it’s then that I need to realize that they are doing the best they can and accept these best efforts.
Thanks for sharing what your friend said about comparing ourselves to others is like comparing our inside to their outside! I am so guilty of that!
I need to be confident in Christ & the woman He created me to be!
I love songs by Mercy Me, but I had not heard that one – thank you so much for sharing!
I am a school nurse and I spent 45 minutes today in the bathroom with a stressed out student. I wish that she could see that beautiful video. I want to send it to her mom but the family is not of the Christian faith, so i will need to talk to mom first I think. Please pray that she will be receptive to viewing this video and your website.
I used to compare myself alot with other women. Thought they were so much more beautiful than I was. After my husband died and God revealed to me that He is my husband and that He loves me so much more, those comparisons became less and less. There are still some days when I see a lovely couple together and compare myself to them. Not having a husband to share things with, but then I remember that God is my husband and He is always listening to me and has time for me.
God has also used the things that I have gone through and the gifts that He has given to me to help others. I mostly have been able to help other women in their struggles in their marriages, and just who they are in God. I have the gifts of counseling and praying for people. I’m known as the go to person who knows what is going on and needs to be done as well. Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes it is not.
I am just so thankful that God has allowed me the opportunity to struggle and grow with Him through life experiences and that He has allowed me to help others through the things He has taught me.
I’ve had friends tel me, for decades, “you should be a writer!!” I’ve felt drawn in my heart, as well, to write but just don’t know how/where to start. Imagine my joy, bliss,ecstasy today when I read what Renee said in this chapter about her spiritual gifts and the thank you card. Thank you cards are my thing!! Not only do I love to write them…………………………..I create them thru the medium of rubber stamping!! 🙂 Prayng God will “stamp” his plan on my forehead so I will know how to proceed!! Thanks Renee for your courage to step out and write this book. You ARE changing lives!! PTL!!!
I suppose all through grade school and on up through high school i was rediculously and painfully shy. If i could have mushed myself into the cinder block walls and become invisible i would have done it. I was an only child and grew up in a world of adults. Kids scared me and i watched the ones at school and they were mean. I never wanted to be anyone else though, i just wanted everyone to leave me alone. Little Miss Goody Two-shoes they called me, or dinky because i was small. Now i still really don’t have much use for myself. I know God doesn’t make junk but i think i must have been at the end of the line. Now because of medical problems that started 5 years ago, a severely bad back from my neck on down to my hips that makes it impossible to excerise i am 55 lbs overweight and i can’t stand it. I see myself as very ugly, not fearfully and wonderfully made. On the inside maybe but my outside is really screwed up.
I LOVE this Mercy Me song! Just reading those words– loved, precious, sacred, cherised, chosen, beautiful, I am HIS! — washes a calmness and a peace over me. I think I’ll write those words on a notecard and put it on my bathroom mirror. Thank you, and God bless you!