I tried my hand at mini-pecan-tarts today... and they did not look like these...
These are the tarts that a friend made the other night, and they tasted every bit as good as they look.
aaah, culinary perfection, ... perfect mini tarts pulled from a toasty-warm oven
and
mine were...
just as delicious,
after I chiseled them out of the baking tin.
It was a "Simple Recipe".
They looked so easy to make!
And, they were...
They just weren't easy to take out of the pan.
"Oooooh, where did I go wrong????" sob, sob.
Actually, all was not lost, 11 of the 24 came out sort of nice, and since 13 weren't suitable to give away, we had even more yummy-ugly treats to eat. (We had to get rid of the embarrassing evidence that we are not professional bakers.)
Have you ever peeked into someone's world, compared, and found yourself "lacking"? -- I have.
WE ALWAYS
SET OURSELVES UP FOR FAILURE
WHEN WE COMPARE.
It might be possible that someone has looked at this blog and thought, "wow, she sure has it all together"... haha, well, not if they've read too many posts, but you will never know which photos I conveniently cropped to remove school books, dirty dishes, over flowing laundry baskets, etc. And, you won't find me posting "feeling-fat-pictures" or "bad-hair-day-photos"... well, not unless that's what the blog is about... hmmm, maybe I'll do that once just to make you feel better and to "keep it real".
My dad told me too many times for me ever to forget, "You will always be able to find someone who seems to be better off and someone who seems to be worse off than you." ("seems" is the key word, We need to be careful in judging; because we only see a cropped-glimpse from our limited perspective.)
There will always be people richer and poorer,
more athletic and less coordinated,
more beautiful/handsome and less attractive than you...
(continue with any area of pride or insecurity:
better/worse dressed,
more/less popular,
neater/more cluttered house,
healthier/unhealthier, etc.)
And you can always find someone more "saintly", whether genuinely righteous or just self-righteous, and someone more "pagan", whether totally immoral or just less legalistic, than you.
So who will you compare yourself to?
One will make you feel great about yourself and the other will make you feel like a failure, but both will leave you self-deceived.
Don't compare yourself to anyone except Christ. He alone is perfect. We are all sinners. We all need forgiveness. We all need a Savior. None of us measure up to God's standard, until Christ gives us His righteousness.
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21. Jesus is the only standard, and He is most gracious and humble to encourage us where we are.
One last thing...
When you see someone doing something well, rather than comparing, just ask them how they did it.
I asked my friend, "WHERE DID I GO WRONG?" She said, "...make
sure that the filling stays IN the little cup of dough. If you drip or
it oozes between the crust & the pan it’s a disaster. Also, make
sure you remove them right away or the filling becomes like a glue. "And, now I know why I had an oozing, gluey disaster! Live and Learn.
Stay humble, and keep seeking.
These are the tarts that a friend made the other night, and they tasted every bit as good as they look.
aaah, culinary perfection, ... perfect mini tarts pulled from a toasty-warm oven
and
mine were...
just as delicious,
after I chiseled them out of the baking tin.
It was a "Simple Recipe".
They looked so easy to make!
And, they were...
They just weren't easy to take out of the pan.
"Oooooh, where did I go wrong????" sob, sob.
Actually, all was not lost, 11 of the 24 came out sort of nice, and since 13 weren't suitable to give away, we had even more yummy-ugly treats to eat. (We had to get rid of the embarrassing evidence that we are not professional bakers.)
Have you ever peeked into someone's world, compared, and found yourself "lacking"? -- I have.
WE ALWAYS
SET OURSELVES UP FOR FAILURE
WHEN WE COMPARE.
It might be possible that someone has looked at this blog and thought, "wow, she sure has it all together"... haha, well, not if they've read too many posts, but you will never know which photos I conveniently cropped to remove school books, dirty dishes, over flowing laundry baskets, etc. And, you won't find me posting "feeling-fat-pictures" or "bad-hair-day-photos"... well, not unless that's what the blog is about... hmmm, maybe I'll do that once just to make you feel better and to "keep it real".
My dad told me too many times for me ever to forget, "You will always be able to find someone who seems to be better off and someone who seems to be worse off than you." ("seems" is the key word, We need to be careful in judging; because we only see a cropped-glimpse from our limited perspective.)
There will always be people richer and poorer,
more athletic and less coordinated,
more beautiful/handsome and less attractive than you...
(continue with any area of pride or insecurity:
better/worse dressed,
more/less popular,
neater/more cluttered house,
healthier/unhealthier, etc.)
And you can always find someone more "saintly", whether genuinely righteous or just self-righteous, and someone more "pagan", whether totally immoral or just less legalistic, than you.
So who will you compare yourself to?
One will make you feel great about yourself and the other will make you feel like a failure, but both will leave you self-deceived.
Don't compare yourself to anyone except Christ. He alone is perfect. We are all sinners. We all need forgiveness. We all need a Savior. None of us measure up to God's standard, until Christ gives us His righteousness.
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21. Jesus is the only standard, and He is most gracious and humble to encourage us where we are.
One last thing...
When you see someone doing something well, rather than comparing, just ask them how they did it.
Stay humble, and keep seeking.
