Book Review: Compared to Her by Sophie de Witt

How to experience true contentment.

That’s quite a claim for a book to make, and I have to say that I was sceptical. But I have since changed my mind. Halfway in I realised that I was guilty of comparing myself to others, particularly in the area of ‘Christian-ness’ (read the book to find out what I’m talking about). What is worrying is that I didn’t even realise that it was going on.

Sophie de Witt begins by explaining what Compulsive Comparison Syndrome is. She then went on to describe what it looks like in real life, what triggers it, and the consequences of living like that in the long term. All these will take you to about the halfway point of the book. The next couple of chapters cover why we have this problem, and where it comes from. She does this by describing what the Bible has to say about our problem and the effect it has on our relationship with God. The solution comes when we get our view of God and ourselves right. If He is not what satisfies us then we will never be truly content and we will be doomed to always compare ourselves with others.

I haven’t really done this book justice in the short space I have used to summarise it. The best thing that I think you can do is to sit down and read it for yourself. It is very readable. At less than a hundred pages it isn’t a long or daunting read. It’s a perfect book to pick up if you have never read a Christian book before and want to try something lighter than Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.

The book has eight chapters and an introduction, so if you read one chapter a day, you would have read it through in just over a week. I read it in three sittings, none of them longer than an hour. You may also like to consider reading it with someone and sharing your thoughts with one another. If you agree to be honest about what you are struggling with, you can fight that fight with someone rather than on your own.

What I’m taking away from this book is a greater awareness of what I am thinking. And when I catch myself comparing myself with others, I am teaching myself to remember God and be satisfied with Him as my King.

Have you read this book? I’m interested to know your thoughts about it.

Written By Ruth Lawrence for YMI