Jealousy and spiritual gifts

I ran for Senior Class President when I was in high school.

And I lost.

Obviously, I was disappointed. And pretty jealous of the girl who did win. And a little embarrassed that I ran a campaign that failed.

I knew the girl that I lost to pretty well, and I spent a little bit of time avoiding her.

And then I thought, “I really should just go congratulate her.”

I found her and told her congratulations. She gave me a hug and said she was sad we couldn’t both win. I told her that I knew she would be a great Class President.

I felt so good inside.

I realized that I could be HER cheerleader. Her support. I could raise her up.

Everyone would benefit from this other girl doing a fantastic job.

She had great leadership qualities, and that took literally nothing away from the leadership qualities that I had.

I’ve honestly tried to live my life with that moment in mind ever since.

It’s pretty easy and natural to cheer people on when they are doing something I’m not good at.

I’ll praise people’s cooking and root for them at sporting events without any real jealousy, because I don’t excel in those areas.

But when someone plays a piano piece in sacrament meeting or writes a spiritual thought on social media that goes viral, the natural woman in me tends to want to ignore or wallow in jealousy.

But I’ve found so much freedom and peace from cheering everyone, absolutely everyone, on in whatever good things they are doing.

The Lord teaches in D&C 46:12:

“To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.”

Sometimes it’s easy to see that all of our DIFFERENT gifts are complimentary and bless other people’s lives.

But do we also show gratitude, love, and support for the people who have very similar or identical gifts as we do?

Not to compete, but to build each other up.

I fully believe the world is a better place when we each cheer each other on. When we really truly believe that one person succeeding doesn’t mean that others can’t. Even if one of them wins an election and we don’t.

We’re all still awesome. And we’ve been so blessed.

Let’s use our gifts to help everyone out around us, and let’s cheer other people on when they are using their gifts, too!

That way, we all can be profited thereby.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black