Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy

A little before the 1 year mark of our business, we were still only selling kids clothes on Instagram but expanded to designing our own fabric to make our clothes more exclusive. Being that I was the designer, I was feeling the weight of the success of the business on my shoulders, and on top of that, Kait was toying with the idea of quitting her job and going full time with Royal + Reese. I followed several other kids shops on Instagram who had more followers, more engagement on their posts and cuter clothes. I watched as we struggled to make a sale while these other shops were selling out. I watched as we struggled to increase our followers while these other shop's follower counts were steadily rising. I struggled to come up with creative new designs while I watched these other shops come out with such cute things and I thought, how am I going to top that? I crawled into my bed at night and I thought, "These other shops are doing exactly what we are but they're doing it SO much better. What's the point? We might as well close up shop."

This went on for a bit, while I watched my sisters fearfully tread forward with so much strength and confidence. I prayed that God would renew my strength for their sake, and that I could give it my all so I could make them proud. God kept saying, over and over Proverbs 4:25-27

25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.

26 Give careful thought to the[a] paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

He was telling me to keep my head down and work hard, and lift my eyes ONLY to Him. I think it's extremely easy to look at other's journeys and compare your own journey with theirs. I think it's easy to assume that others have it easy. I think it's extremely easy to get discouraged and to eventually quit. And I think that's exactly what the devil wants you to do. 

This business isn't for the faint of heart, and although some make it look easy- it most certainly is not and you can expect some hard knocks along the way but looking back now, we HAD to go through those tough times and learn how to fix what was broken. It brought us to our knees and it fortified our strength in God, in our business, in each other, and in ourselves. I'm positive there will be more tough times ahead, but we are armored now with experience and I know that we can fight through anything that comes our way. But I can tell you this, I would have quit a long time ago if I continued to look to the right and to the left. Just stay the course!

-Whitney