Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money,
and be content with what you have, because God has said, “I will never leave
you; never will I forsake you.”
Have you ever notice how unhappy you leave yourself feeling
after looking around at what other people have compared to what you don’t have?
It is a deadly trap too. It is so normal in our American way of life to have
“THE AMERICAN DREAM!” You want the boat, the house, the nice cottage on the
lake, the hot spouse, the awesome kids that are tops in everything, the best
looks, the nicest and newest of all cars, a great job that you are valued in
and appreciated. The list goes on and on and on. We don’t even remember we want
half of those things until we realize someone else has them or has it better.
We are all guilty of it. We look around notice our friends
kid is a straight A student while our kid is average. We were proud of them
till that moment when we realized someone else’s kid just beat ours. Or you are
so thankful when we buy a house for the first time. But, then you have a friend
who bought a new house too but they sold their last one in order to upgrade to
something way bigger and better than you can afford. Or your marriage, you
think it’s going good, till we notice that someone else’s husband dotes on them
so much more than our own husband does on us, they must be even more in-love
with each other than you are with your spouse.
It’s the worst game to play and the worst mind set to get
into and a hard one to break. We feed our need for self pity. At first we say
we look so we can see where we can improve. Like with our marriage for
instance. We think we have a good marriage going on but as soon as we see Mrs.
Brown’s husband treating her so much better, we start questioning if we have a
good marriage at all. Am I failing in my marriage as a wife that I need to
improve in order to make my husband treat me the way Mrs. Brown’s husband
treats her? Where do I fall short? Why
doesn’t he do those things for me? We start running questions through our minds
of our not being good enough, first it’s our fault that we have done something
wrong. Then we move on to blaming our
spouse thinking it’s his fault and he has a problem with you and he needs to
step it up a bit. We get caught comparing all the time and then letting it take
our minds to a level that we never really wanted it to be on.
Or if you aren’t married the scenario can play out
differently of looking at another person’s life and thinking how happy they are
because they are married. All of the sudden when you were perfectly content
being single and doing your own thing walking with God in the world and not
caring if you were married or not you start wanting the same thing your friend has, a spouse, because it makes
her so happy.
Either way we find ways to make ourselves unhappy by comparing
what we have and can afford to what those around us have and start feeling like
we don’t have what it takes to make us happy. We forget to find happiness in
what we do have. We forget to be happy with the car we have, thankful it gets
us from point A to point B. Thankful that we are not living on the street even
if we don’t own a home. Thankful for our kids being able to even attend school
and learn to read and write and communicate properly so that one day they can
grow up and have an equal shot at a good job. Thankful we have a husband who loves us and
our kids and is striving to be there for us each day. When we look around we see what we don’t have
and question how everyone else around us is so blessed forgetting where we came
from is not the same place as where they came from and that we too have been
blessed in so many ways.
God does not want us to live in misery like this all the
time. Sure he wants us to make sure we are doing things his way and measuring
up to his standards for our lives, but he does not want us looking around
coveting what others have and wishing for better. He doesn’t want us wondering
around depressed because we think someone else’s life might be better. He wants us to be satisfied with the life he
gave us and be satisfied in his loving arms. He doesn’t love the person down
the street anymore than he loves you or me.
We have to choose to look at what we have and be thankful for
everything. It is a season to be thankful and there are so many things big and
small we have been blessed with that we are to be thankful for. Being content
with what you have brings you a life full of joy and happiness.
I choose to be
thankful. I choose to stop looking at others and measuring myself up to their
successes and failures. I choose to let God be my everything and know all
things are a blessing from Him to me. I
deserve none of them but am so thankful He saw fit to give them to me. God
loves me, won’t leave me, won’t forsake me and holds me in the palm of His hand. He does not hold me any higher or lower or tighter than other people I have chosen to compare myself too.
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