We Should Not Covet
Have you ever noticed that most of our feelings and perceptions about money are based on how we compare to others around us? It’s all relative! But when you compare yourself to others, you’re treading on quicksand – the more you move around, the more you struggle, the faster you get sucked under.
No matter what you do for a living, there will always be people who have a bigger house or drive a nicer car, or have a job that pays more. We’re strange people. We’re obsessed with wealth and the wealthy. We hold them up as our example of success. We need to be honest and admit sometimes we are just plain jealous.
Forgiveness – releasing and receiving – is the secret to contentment. We have to give ourselves permission to be happy living on our side of the fence, and give our neighbors permission to do the same thing. We have to get our eyes off our neighbor’s “donkey” (his summer home, his investment account, his wife and his life), and focus on the blessings in our own back yard.
Deuteronomy 5:21 – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house and land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey; or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
By the Rev. Tommy Herndon