My husband and I had submitted individual stories to a storytelling competition and were surprised to hear that we’d each made the finals. This meant that we’d receive a pass to the national festival and would be performing our stories in front of an audience. The prize? $2,000.

Friends of ours laughed when they heard both my husband and I would be contenders for the prize. But I couldn’t help feeling that God didn’t create any of His children to compete for attention or praise. Since contests like the one we were taking part in are sometimes known to be ego-centered or lacking in warmth, I decided to pray for a few weeks before the event to get a more spiritual view of competition. One day, while sitting on my lounge searching for some answers, a fresh idea came to me.

I thought about the colors radiating from a prism. In this analogy, the prism is God and we’re the different colors reflected out from it. Each color is unique, yet each still comes directly from the prism. None of the colors competes against each other. And since God is all-powerful good, there could be no negative sense of competition. God doesn’t “compete” against Himself. All a competition, or contest, could do is show different aspects and qualities of God in myriad ways.

I began to pray that the storytelling event would bring forward spiritual qualities, and that each contestant would feel confident, secure, and be able to impart his or her story with perfection, an attribute of God. I also prayed to know that the judges could discern all of the participants’ qualities. Of course, $2,000 was an attractive prize, but I’d also been teaching my Sunday School students, the Tenth Commandment – “Thou shalt not covet.” So I prayed to see that whatever I needed, God would always be the source of my supply. And because His law is universal, this applied to everyone. No one could ever miss out.

Athletes sometimes talk about focusing on “competing against themselves.” This phrase was somewhat helpful but still left me with doubts because I hadn’t had a lot of time to rehearse. One of my fears was that I would forget my piece. But a beautiful angel thought soon came to me from God: “I will be with you, I will teach you what to say.” I realized if this promise came from divine Love itself, I could certainly trust and not be afraid.

The night of the competition came, and as my husband and I entered the venue, we saw the other participants practicing their stories. It looked as if they’d been rehearsing for a long time! Although it was tempting to feel under-prepared, I just remembered to trust in God. As it was time for things to start, I prayed that we’d all feel a sense of confidence.

When the first contestant was introduced as an international storyteller I was again tempted to feel intimidated. But I stuck to the spiritual fact that all of God’s children are equal and worthy. And that we aren’t meant to bring each other down through competition, but to showcase the good.

With my thoughts focused on the spiritual motivation for the evening, I was able to listen attentively to all of the other contestants without feeling anxious about my own story. It was also such a treat to be able to listen to my husband’s performance and appreciate his sense of humor. When it was my turn, ideas spontaneously flowed on how to act out my piece in order to bring it alive. In rehearsals, I hadn’t practiced the dialogue with any movement. But when I got up on stage, I found myself taking the microphone stand and becoming each of the characters, actually acting the story out. I felt God’s presence, and inspiration took over. My story got a rousing reception, and I was so grateful.

Before long, the winning story was announced. It wasn’t mine. Or my husband’s. But I was in no way disappointed or jealous. Rather, I was excited and happy for the winner. I congratulated her and felt her story had expressed qualities I really admired such as compassion, kindness, and humility. Most of the contestants stayed around to talk to each other, and everyone spoke of how special each piece was. Quite a few people encouraged me to publish my performance as a children’s book and another man interrupted his conversation on his mobile phone to say, “Brilliant!”

There was a real camaraderie and appreciation of each person’s work. I felt this fellowship was God’s doing. The competition made me realize that no one, in God’s eyes, is “more talented” than anyone else. Divine Love just doesn’t see things that way. Keeping this perspective has helped me so much in my career. Right now, as my husband and I are taking our children’s theater show on the road, we pray to know that we’re expressing God through each performance. I’m learning that He’s with us constantly, and I can never be intimidated by others’ creative contributions.

Enough good for all:

Science and Health
468:22

King James Bible
Ex 20:17