Something better

I am blessed with some great friends. They have pretty homes and great cars. Most of them are married and have such wonderful families with loving husbands and extremely cute children. Oh and don’t even get me started on how much I love some of my friends’ clothes!

But do you know what sometimes happens? I get discontent, and I start comparing my life to my friends’. Wow, I wish I had that outfit or even the extra money to buy that outfit. If I were married, it would be easier to have a house rather than living in an apartment. Oh, what a nice new living room set my friend got when I haven’t been able to buy something new for a while. That friend was able to go on a great cruise. Why can’t I get to do that? I could continue, but I think you get the idea.

Thankfully, though, I never become envious and wish they didn’t have the blessings that they have. No. I just start to compare my life to theirs and to wish my life, my looks and my belongings were different and better. I look at what I have and wish I could change it.

At times, it is hard when everyone posts pictures and writes about all the good things they have or are happening to them. There are times when I have to put away my social media for a bit just so I don’t get discontent when I see my friends’ posts. You see, that is a way I can put away temptation—to avoid sinning by being discontent which can then lead to other sins like envy or anger.

How ungrateful it is to the One who supplies my needs and cares for me when I am discontent.  “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:25-26).

Please don’t misunderstand. God does bless me with special things, as well as supply my needs. I have received many gifts from God. And that is what I need to remember when I begin to feel discontent—that God does take care of me and give me special blessings. That He loves me very much.

How about you? Do you struggle with this too? Do you find yourself discontent with what God has given you? Probably every one of us can say that we have struggled with this at some point. So, what do you do about it? Do you let that feeling fester until it becomes envy or even anger because you don’t have what someone else has?

Dear friend, I hope that when you begin to feel discontentment, you remember Who gives us our gifts. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17). He knows what we need and desire. He knows what is best for us. Trust Him. He always takes care of His children.