I took many things from this book but the one sentence that keeps playing over and over in my mind is this, "Don't compare yourself to others, compare yourself to your potential."
This really hit me. I have been on a journey the last 6 months to really understand and feel for myself what my potential is. My Father in Heaven has given me some intense and painful growing experiences in these last 6 months and I know, with 100% surety, that he is allowing me to see my potential and what he expects me to accomplish in this life.
Most of the time all I can see is how far I am from it and how much work I need to do to get there, but the more I stop comparing myself to others and keep comparing myself to my potential, the easier I think it will be to daily act on the things I need to do as a mother, wife, friend, business owner and all the other hats I wear.
There is a chapter in the book where the main character gets to go back in time and meet Christopher Columbus. He is on the ship with them, 60 or so days into their voyage. The crew is at their breaking point and sick of hearing Christopher say every morning, "I see Land! I see it, look? Just there at the horizon!" when, day after day, all they wake up to is ocean and sky.
When the main character questions Christopher, because clearly, there is no land, Christopher says something like, "You are looking in wrong place, don't look out at the ocean, look here, in my eyes. I see land!"
Christopher knew he would find land, and he held that belief for everyone else who doubted. That is what our Father, our God, our Creator does for us. He holds that space for us, that crystal clear bottle brimming with brilliance and beauty and goodness and love and he asks us to look to Him, not others for the surety that we are great and that we can do great things. He created us, He knows our potential and He believes in us, even, and most especially when we don't believe in ourselves.
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