Comparing Numbers Without Comparing Ourselves: Gratitude and Contentment

This idea walks around your house all day. Contentment is not pretending you have more. It is being genuinely thankful for what is actually in your hand. This is worth learning because a thankful heart is worth more than a bigger number.

Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

This is a good thing for a young mathematician to know. Comparing numbers is useful. Comparing yourself to other people usually is not. Someone will always have more toys and someone will always have fewer.

If your happiness depends on having the bigger number, you will never be satisfied. God tells us to be content and thankful for what He has given. So compare amounts on paper carefully, and hold your own life with gratitude instead of measuring it against someone else’s.

Try this today. When you notice yourself wanting what someone else has, say thank you out loud for something you already have. Gratitude is a habit you build the same way you build math facts, by practicing when it is not easy. Do it carefully rather than quickly, and thank God for a mind that can learn.