Day 3: The Fear of Failure

Fear plays a huge part in overcoming obstacles. And it can take many forms. 
For many years I felt like a failure. There's many things I have tried to do, or wanted to do, that I either just haven't gotten around to, or that I have failed miserably at. At least, that's what I told myself. Every job I had that didn't last long, every friendship or relationship that withered, Every project I undertook that never got completed. How is it so many others can do so many things and succeed? I never even finished high school to be honest. I went back 4 times, and the last time I managed to almost finish. I went through graduation ceremonies even, I just didn't get the diploma because I didn't have enough credits, but nobody knew that LOL. I felt like a failure at education. Sometimes, I feel like a failure as a parent too still. There's always so much more I want to do!
     And that fear of failure, the failure itself, is all based on comparing myself to other people. We use other people's success to measure our own. If someone else does a better job at a task than us, we consider us to have failed. But I can guarantee you that person you think has passed you, has failed compared to the next person who has done even better. Why do we measure ourselves by other people's standards anyways? What makes someone else's efforts worth more than ours? 
Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength". It's not by our own will we do things, and it's not for our earthly gain.
When I look at some of the things I do, I can only compare it to myself. The real success comes not from doing something better than someone else, the real success comes from learning and growing and doing something better than we ourselves might have done yesterday. And when I look at where I have come from, and where I am now, where God has brought me and where He is bringing me, only there can I see success. Not in my own power, and not compared to anyone else.
    Our ultimate measurement of success is this: to reach the goals that God has given us. And right now what reminds me of that is this verse in 1 Corinthians 10:31 " Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."