If you’ve ever found yourself looking around and wondering if you measure up... if you’re doing enough, being enough, or somehow falling behind—you’re not alone. I know the feeling well—growing up with insecurity and then striving to prove myself; the root of it all—comparison.

Comparing myself to others shaped the way I saw myself. I felt less than others and never enough. Comparison kept me striving, second-guessing, and holding back pieces of who I really was. But God had a different story in mind for me—one I didn’t fully begin to understand until my life took an unexpected turn.

In 2013, I developed a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, and in 2014, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

In this difficult season of my life I leaned into God more and our relationship grew. My momentary troubles became the very place where God would meet me in a deeper way. I started to look at life differently and searched for God’s perspective. I saw the love and compassion He has for His beloved creation and understood His call to help the lost, broken, and overlooked—leading me into prison ministry.

In 2017, I started to volunteer with Prison Fellowship, serving with friends at Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF). I’ve witnessed firsthand the power of God’s love to restore and redeem. I would leave those prison walls more blessed than when I went in. Then Covid-19 happened and we could no longer go in and serve for a time. God was still leading my steps, and called me into another prison ministry; I am currently Treasurer of Kairos Outside of Eastern Wisconsin. I am also serving as CFO of SEEDS Ministry— and being part of Bloom Again gatherings for women and girls.

All that God has called me into has been very fulfilling and has manifested great joy. But there was a vital piece missing—God’s next steps were to work deep within me because I wasn’t living fully free. He called me out of my shell of comparison that has always caused great insecurity and striving so I can freely be me. I cannot serve these wonderful ministries and be my authentic self through the lens of comparison. He taught me when I stop comparing myself I can fully be myself! Our life isn’t meant to be measured by anyone else’s standards, but to be lived fully in the identity He has given each one of us. We are all searching for freedom.

And that freedom is found in knowing who we are in Him.

My most important calling has always been at home—as a wife to my amazing husband, Scott, and a mom to my three beautiful girls who add the sparkle to my life. They remind me every day how important it is to live this message out—not perfectly, but authentically.

And now, God is calling me into something new!

And it is, truly, beyond compare,