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"A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." (Proverbs 14:30 NIV)
Whenever I walked up to the main house in the morning to look after my granddaughters while my daughter went to work, I always put small treats in my pocket. There were two hard, green spearmint candies — one for Ade, who is the older child, and one for me — and two gummy treats for Lindy, the younger, who was not yet old enough to have hard candies, in case she inadvertently swallowed one and choked.
Lindy always accepted her gummy candies, but often pointed at the green candies, inquiring, by her look, if she could have one. She longed for the day when she, like Ade, would be old enough to have a green candy, and until such a time, a hint of jealousy was always present.
According to the dictionary, to be jealous is to have a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck, or a desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to someone else. Lindy certainly exemplified this!
Finally, the day did come when Lindy was deemed old enough to have her first green candy. She was triumphant as she popped it into her mouth, only to discover, to her profound disappointment, that she didn't like it! After longing for and waiting and being jealous over the fact that she didn't get a green candy like Ade, it wasn't even something that satisfied her when she got it.
How often do we do the same thing? We allow jealousy over any number of things to steal our peace and satisfaction. Instead of being happy with what God has blessed us with, we waste time and energy longing for something that we perceive to be better or different, greater or more worthy. How often, if we have been fortunate to attain what we think we want, do we, like Lindy, end up feeling disappointed and crestfallen?
God knows our hearts. He knows every single thing about us, and He knows what is best for us and why it is best for us. So, let's not waste time and energy on being jealous. Let's not even let a hint of it grab hold of us and steal even a tiny iota of our peace. Rather, may we choose to devote our time and energy to praise Him for what we do have and thus experience the peace that such an exercise of faith and trust grants to us.
Prayer: Lord God, we thank You so much that You know exactly what is best for each one of us. May we choose to rest in this and thus embrace the inner peace that such trust and thankfulness brings. In Christ's name, we ask. Amen.
Copyright © 2022, by Lynne Phipps <lynnephippsatlin@PROTECTED>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Atlin, British Columbia, Canada
Reprinted from PresbyCan with author's permission
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