thankful

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:1-10, NRSV)

How many times do you look at what someone else has and say to yourself, “I wish I had that.”

We covet what we see others have. We think if we only had what they had, we would be truly happy.

If only I lived in their house, and had their family. and drive their car, and had their phone, then my life would be great and everything would be wonderful…

But the old saying is that the grass is always green on the other side of the fence, means that someone is looking at your life and saying about you what you are saying about them…

You see, God has blessed each of us in a way that shows His love for us.

We need to be thankful for all that He has given us and stop comparing our lives with that of someone else. They are not us and we are not them, so we will not be the same…

List out on this day of Thanksgiving what you have in your life to be thankful for. I bet you will surprised how long the list is…