Commandment #10: Thou Shall Not
Covet
To covet: (v) to wish for or desire what belongs to another,
Why is it that we look toward others and compare our lives
to them? Sizing up ourselves against what someone else’s life looks like.
Appears to be. It’s been done since the
invention of Man.
” But why can’t I have the apple?” “But why does Esau get
the blessing?” “But why does Matthew get to go?”
Pretty Polly Perfect
Had a great vacation in the Smoky
Mountains. Great family time and everyone got along perfectly! Little Jimmy won
$100 in the pie eating contest and then gave it to the local homeless
shelter. On the way home we found a lost
dog at a rest stop, We named him Sgt. Brown after the war veteran we met while visiting the soup kitchen
last month. It’s almost Back to School time, and we are so excited for Sis to
start college. How awesome that she will finally fulfill her dream of becoming
a pediatric nurse! Well off to plan a trip with Hubby to celebrate 20 years of
blissful marriage! God is so good!
Excuse me while I puke in my mouth.
A daily diet of this can make anyone turn green with envy
and feel disillusioned about her own life. It can make you think you are doing
something wrong. That you don’t deserve to have blessings. That God doesn’t
think you deserve them. That He's holding out on you. You begin to think that Jeremiah 29:11 is for other people, not you.
'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' Jeremiah 29:11
It’s not even like we
don’t want others to have it. We just
want it, too!
Be careful what you wish for.
Along with that “perfect life” that you think you want, you
might also be getting the TRUTH behind that pretty post. You might get the
abusive childhood that Pretty Polly has to overcompensate for every day. You
might get the 50 hr workweek that Hubby has to endure to pay for said luxuries.
You might get Sis’s eating disorder that developed from her warped internal
idea of success. You might get Little Jimmy’s loneliness and secret longing for
a Mom who would have let him keep that $100 and blow it on a cap gun
or some other “dangerous” boy toy.
The truth is we don’t know what ANYONE’S life is really like. We only know what they choose to share.
How much less pressure would we all feel if we could understand that it’s THEIR life,
and our life is OUR life? It’s the one God wanted us to have. The one filled
with lessons WE need to learn and experiences WE need to have. The one that
we will be able to navigate with using the unique and special qualities that
we have been blessed with.
It’s a hard lesson to learn….Gratitude
despite the circumstances. Something to
be practiced every day. It's a hard commandment not to break.
Someone told me once that the Ten Commandments are not what God wants us NOT to do, but what He knows we WILL do. And that's why we need grace.
Thank you, Lord. For MY life.
Thank you, Lord for grace.
What a miserable thing life is: you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough. ~Bertolt Brecht, Jungle of Cities, 1924
