Can I Get Out Of This Popularity Contest?

There's a really excellent series over at Faithful Bloggers on "How To Become an A-List Blogger"!  It's not what you might think. (Actually, I avoided it for a day, because I didn't want to feel depressed!) 

Here is a part of the comment I left on the post at Faithful Bloggers:

"Yes, I admit that at times I get downright depressed going to a Christian woman's blog and seeing her hundreds of followers, dozens of comments, and a blog post that I could have written (i.e. nothing particularly special) and I think, "Why?" "What am I doing 'wrong'?" I continually come back to the foundation of why I am blogging--It's God's Blog! I want to be His pen--the pen of a ready writer. (Psalm 45:1) I'm reminded of the prophets in the Old Testament, who said exactly what God told them, and were the most despised, lonely, unpopular guys on the block. I haven't cared about popularity, or let it bother me, for years (and I have *no* desire to return to high school!) so I will keep my focus on the Lord and leave the results to Him. I will prioritize according to His will and His Word (God, husband, family first). Fame and earthly glory are fleeting. 'A woman who fears the Lord shall be praised.'" Proverbs 31:30

Have you, like me, sometimes felt like you were in a "beauty pageant" or "popularity contest" of Christian women? Sometimes it's a competition for "Best Christian Woman Blogger" and you look at all their followers, and their "credits" and accolades: writing here, there and everywhere, and feel very small.  Sometimes reading blogs you feel in a competition for "Best Christian Wife and Mom" and you feel incompetent and out of your league. Maybe you have felt this way, like me, at times.  I know when I feel this way that I have my eyes on the wrong thing.  I know that I have gotten my eyes off of the Lord, and onto people and things.  God has made me *me*.  He didn't make me *you*.  *You* have gifts, talents, experiences, and a message that I can never have. Your relationship with the Lord and the journey that you have been on with Him in your life, and the story that He is writing through you is unique, and special. Because of all the things that make you uniquely *you*, He can touch the lives of those around you, in your "sphere of influence," through your life, beautifully, when you allow Him to be the "Hand in the glove of your life." And He can do the same with me, in my completely different "sphere of influence," because He is the God who has no problem making every single snowflake different, unique and gloriously beautiful in its own way.

"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
give her of the fruit of her hands; ad let her own works praise her in the gates."

Proverbs 31:30-31