“Don’t be over self-confident with your first impressions of people.” -Chinese Proverb

It’s easy to compare ourselves to our impressions of others. We tend to compare the “macro” view we see in ourselves to the “micro” view we see in others. Then we inflate the micro view into a macro perception of them.

In other words, we only see little glimpses into other people’s lives but we tend to believe that the little we see when people are at their best is the way they are all the time. We take this view and compare it to the big picture of our own lives. Often times, it is not a fair comparison.

I hate hearing someone tell us they are discouraged with their family after they have been around my family. I know that they are comparing their family to what they saw when we were at our best. What they don’t see is the days (or weeks) that our family operates like a run away freight train. It is not fair to their family to be held to those standards.

It is good to set high standards for our families and to find others that we admire and respect to push us to higher levels. But we do need to be careful not to elevate each other beyond reality.