Contentment

1 Timothy 6:6-10

⁶But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

One could almost say truer words have never been spoken. I’ve read these verses before, but I sure wish they would have come back into my memory during these past two weeks. One of our boys who came to us a couple years ago has been dealing with the sin of envy and it put him into a deep depression.

It is amazing how quickly we can forget where we came from so to speak and to simply take for granted everything that we have in our lives currently. I watched as this child went to a friend’s house for a couple days and upon his return, his attitude, demeanor, and overall outward personality had vanished. You see, when he is unhappy, he shuts down. Stays in his room, refused to talk to anyone, etc. It often makes it very hard to learn what the core issue of his problem actually is. This time after a week and a half, it turns out that he was envious of another child having cable tv in their room. He no longer cared that he has a computer with internet, an xbox, no set bedtime, a room to himself (a huge commodity in our home!), and etc. All the privileges that he had earned or been given no longer meant anything to him as all of a sudden, all he could see was what he didn’t have…

^{Deuteronomy 5:21}

²¹ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

“OR ANYTHING THAT BELONGS TO YOUR NEIGHBOR”

wow… Envy is a powerful emotion. We all deal with it in different ways. I’d  like to think I’m happy with what I have, but I know that there are times I see something that someone else has and I think, that would be sweet! But I don’t let it take ownership of me. If you allow your desire to take over your life, you’ll see what just happened with this young man. He quit talking to people. He quit caring about his rooms appearance (a big issue for him). He went out of his way to make sure others knew he was annoyed and he wasn’t going to let anyone enjoy things while he was depressed. He forgot all the blessings that he already has… they were no longer enough. Thats what envy can do to you. It can and will drag you down. It’s not pretty.

When you see that next must have gadget, stop. Think about all the things you have been blessed with! Is that next little thing really that important to you? Is it really a “must” have?

I continue to pray daily and thank the Lord for all he has blessed me with! I pray that he’ll show me patience not just for myself, but to be able to help those around me realize the true blessings in life and not the gadgets. I pray for strength against envy and the other “deadly” sins and the knowledge that the Lord will provide me with what is truly a “must” have. -amen