[Darris McNeely] In grade school, did you ever have a teacher when it came to a test time, spelling test, or whatever she put in front of you there in second grade, and she walked through the aisles, and she would look and tell everybody, "Keep your eyes on your own paper? Don't look to your right. Don't look to your left. Don't look over and try to figure out what your neighbor in your class is saying. Keep your eyes on your own paper."

Good advice. They didn't want us to learn to cheat. I had a teacher one time who told me that, "If you cheat on anything, in any part of school or in life, you're really only hurting yourself. And you will be the loser in the long run." And I've learned through my years that exactly, she was correct. Keep your eyes on your own paper.

You know, we have our own life to live. We have our own lessons to learn. We all have our own tests that we go through that we need to learn certain lessons, life lessons, spiritual lessons, God's teaching us, parents are teaching us, someone else is wanting us to see something that we need that are specific to us. We need to keep our eyes on our own paper and let those lessons come to us. We need to prepare so that we know our stuff. We are ready to give an answer and to be correct and know from our mind and from our heart, the discipline, the topic, the subject that we are studying, keep your eyes on your own paper.

Every one of us has a blank sheet in front of us for our life, to run our race, to make our journey, to write our story, every one of us. And it's ours and it's unique. And in our relationship with God, He wants us to not compare ourselves with one another. Only so far that that perhaps can make us stronger if it's a good example. But worry about what you produce, do the best you can. Don't always worry about what someone else is doing, thinking. And if they don't always react with great joy, and congratulations, and attaboys for what you've written, what you've said, or what you've done, or even what you are, don't worry about that.

There's a Scripture in 1 Corinthians 10...2 Corinthians actually, 10:12, that says, "We dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise."

Don't always compare yourself to someone else. Compare yourself to God. Compare yourself to the example of Christ, but write on your own paper. Make your own story, and keep your eyes on your own paper, and pass the test of life.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.