If I were the adversary, I think I would attempt to pit God’s children against one another in order to have my way as they all aimlessly bicker. It would be so simple to achieve my goals if I could get people to base their value on looks rather than personality, family members to constantly try and outperform each other, teammates to try and beat each other’s statistics, volunteers to try and out serve each other, and religious people to constantly compare righteousness. Sadly, this is the exact tactic Satan uses. Even worse, he is extremely successful with it.

Each day we are faced with temptation, and every day we commit sin. This is unavoidable as we are human, therefore we are imperfect. Often times, people think sin has a specific form, in that they think you’re only sinning if you break the commandments, or it’s only bad if you get caught. This is not the case. Temptation and sin occur when we think negatively about ourselves, when we speak poorly of others, when we use profanity, when we disobey or ignore promptings from the Lord because we think we know ourselves and the world better than He does, and at a million other times. We are all guilty of some of, if not all of these transgressions, and we are told that all sins are viewed as the same by our Heavenly Father, so why do we judge each other for our sins?

“When they continued asking Him, He lifted up himself, and said unto them, ‘he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’” John 8:7

Through this verse alone, the Lord tells us that we are all guilty of sin. We have all gone through trials, we’ve all succumbed to temptation, and we’ve all been in a situation where we have had the chance to judge someone, however we have no right to do this. It is so incredibly important to remember that He did not put us on this earth to judge one another, to ridicule, or to constantly fight and bicker. We are meant to build up one another, to serve each other, and to help each other return to Him at the end of this life.

“I testify that no one of us is less treasured or cherished of God than another. I testify that He loves each of us—insecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all. He doesn’t measure our talents or our looks’, He doesn’t measure our professions or our possessions; He cheers on every runner, calling out that the race is against sin, not against each other. I know that if we will be faithful there is a perfectly tailored rob of righteousness ready and waiting for everyone, ‘robes…made…white in the blood of the lamb.’” Jeffrey R. Holland

God created His children in His own image. He gave us each talents, traits, and abilities that make us distinct, special individuals. He did not intend for all of us to look like super models and sing like Beyoncé. He does, however, love each of us more than we can begin to imagine. The most important thing for us to do is serve and help each other accomplish what we were sent here to do. It is crucial that we team up against the adversary rather than play his games. In the end, competing only breaks us down, carrying us further away from our final goal. Life is not meant to be a competition against one another; it’s a fight against the one who tries to convince us that it is.