Do not covet they neighbor’s goods. Regardless of your religious beliefs this is a statement most of us try to live by or think that we live by. In the literal sense we do not steal from our next door neighbors, but each day we do indeed covet the goods of the people around us. The word covet means to yearn for possession, a desire to have. We do this with people we see on the street, people we see on t.v. on the internet, social media, and even with our closest friends. We think “If only I looked like that,” or “If I had the money she has.” We even do it with things that aren’t actually things we can covet, like relationships. We see two friends together and immediately think “I want that.”
That is jealousy. Jealousy is rooted in our hearts and we idolize it. It is the source of all gossip. We like to sit in our envy of others and make up these elaborate stories in an to attempt to explain how “not jealous” we are of them. Our desire to covet what someone else has surrounds us so much that we don’t appreciate what we have. We loose our confidence in seeing others do something that we think we can not. Key word think.
The only way to combat jealousy is though confidence. Knowing your envy can help you be more confident and change the way you view yourself comparatively to others. You have to know what makes you jealous and why. In the world of dance its pretty simple. I’m jealous of her ability because I am not able to physically do that. A more petty example might sound something like I’m envious of her hair because mine doesn’t look like that. I’m upset that she’s spending so much time with so and so because it makes me question our relationship. While jealousy is rooted in our hearts, rooted in jealousy is an underlying cause that we do have the ability to fix, once we recogninize it and make it known.
I’ve never understood people who don’t want to change. You know those people that are so unhappy with their lives but they refuse to do anything except complain about it. Once your recognize a problem do something. Once you rid yourself of your jealos tendancies you have way more room and capacity to promote self confidence and positive self image which will in turn radiate out and change others. Next time you go to gossip think about who you are talking about and why it is so important to you. You might be surprised and what you find.
