Last week we talked about being people who are content, unbothered by surrounding circumstances and full of quiet trust that we are exactly where God wants us to be.
As we start a new year I find sometimes it can be daunting. Depending on what your 2025 looked like you may be quietly praying that 2026 is a better year. Or for those who had an awesome year, they are hoping 2026 is just as great.
I am not sure if you have seen the trend on socials lately. People are doing throw backs to 10 years ago. They are posting about where they were then in 2016 and where they are now 10 years on. Initially I looked at my 2016 and I was like “Eww! It was a terrible year!” Haha, it may sound dramatic but I genuinely looked at my photographs from back then, they didn’t look right. Lighting was off in all of them, haha! JK. I thought, “Ok, surely something amazing, just one thing must have happened for me in 2016?” However, in light of other people’s reels and 20 photo collages showcasing all the amazing things they did, conquered, God brought them through… it felt like mine was meh. Comparison found me! Argh! Just as I was talking to you (and me) about it, it got me and it got me to disqualify the miracle that was 2016 in my life.
How many times do we look at someone else’s life and feel like ours isn’t quite as great? How many times do we look at someone’s gift and think ours is not like theirs? How often do we find out people’s age, people who (in our eyes) are giants and doing amazing things and we are like, “what, how are we the same age?” We feel like grasshoppers in comparison. Like we have not accomplished anything.
Comparison will always leave you disappointed. No matter how much you have, how great you are and so on, there will always be someone with more, someone better, someone who can do it differently and more efficiently. I once heard that if you are the smartest person in a room, you need to find a bigger room. There’s always going to be someone better and that is ok. There is always going to be someone who had a better year in 2025 than you and that’s ok. What’s not ok is to diminish, trivialise or otherwise look down on what you do have. What you have is a blessing from God.
My 2016 may not have been super glamorous, but it was the year I started working for my current boss. Back then I did not know that 10 years later, I would look back and marvel at the miracle that job has been in my life. It was one open door, but it led to so many more open doors through the years. It was one miracle, but it made way for so many other miracles! I am where I am in my life because God made a way for me and opened what seemed to be a small door in 2016 but through that door, I can list a lot of blessings that God has been able to pour into my life.
So that is the problem with comparison. I may only have one photo, or one moment (that I remember) to be grateful for from 2016, but that one moment changed everything. I keep thinking I am done talking about comparison and I find myself back here. So maybe God wants us to be very careful going into 2026 not to look at someone else’s success or victory and feel that it diminishes what God is doing in and with us. God is doing something amazing in you. God is working all things together for good. In isolation some of the moments of our lives seem trivial but in retrospect we realise that they were actually pivotal and God was putting something into motion long before we could see what it would later become.
I believe God is going to be weaving some things together in 2026. Do not despair if it feels like others have answers to prayers you are still waiting on and do not bother comparing where they are where you think you should be. You are right where you need to be, in retrospect, you will see God’s hand over the small moments, the mundane routine things and the big moments just the same. You will stop and see that ebenezar, it is God who has brought you this far and it is God who will continue to lead you where you need to be.
We may not know what 2026 holds, and it may seem easier to look back to past years. I have been laughing at people’s posts that say, “I don’t want a new year, maybe give me a slightly used 1995” haha! In other words they are saying, “Better the devil that you know than try embark on a new year full of the unknown.” But as God’s kids, we look back to the years past, not in a way of longing to go back to “the good ol’ days”, no. But so we can see how far God has brought us. God is carefully knitting the pieces of our lives together. We don’t know what the year holds, but we know who holds the year. When we feel overwhelmed we can tap into our childlike faith and sing, “He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole wide world, in His hands!” We are ok, we are going to be ok. 2026 is going to be a good year because our God is good. So let’s buckle in and let’s enjoy the ride!
Love and blessings,
Melissa Tsingano
Heavenly Whispers Blog 
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