Jealousy

I have two nephews who are currently 2 ½ and almost 5. Watching them play together is fascinating. When one boy picks up a toy, suddenly, the other boy determines his life couldn't be complete without that toy! He needs that toy to be happy! So he yanks the toy out of his brother’s hands, making his little brother cry. When the older boy has successfully stolen the toy, he quickly loses interest, because frankly, he didn’t really care about it much in the first place. He just didn’t want his little brother to have it. Mere seconds later, he notices that his little brother has found a new toy, and the stealing commences. My poor sister has the patience of Job, because this is what her day looks like every day, all day.

Why is something so much more appealing when we see other people enjoying it? And then we get that thing we think we can’t live without, only to discover it wasn’t all that great anyway. The funny thing is, my nephews have mountains of toys. And yet, they only want the one thing they can’t have; they fixate on one singular goal. We tend to focus on the one thing we can’t have instead of all the things we can! It we are so focused on the thing we can’t have, we often miss incredible things all around us! We are begging God to give us that one thing we think will complete our happiness, but fail to notice that we are drowning in a sea of amazing blessings.