Personal Story

Kathy shares a story of conflict that came from the kind of desire that James describes.

Kathy’s story
A number of years ago a young family moved in across the alley from our family and we formed a friendship due primarily to the fact that we both had small children who played together. Our neighbor’s girls stair-stepped between our two older girls and there were many days spent playing together.

The mother of these little girls was a believer but despite our children’s friendship, ours as mothers just did not seem to develop beyond a superficial level. She was often critical of my children about little things and this puzzled me. One day as we were visiting in my den, this neighbor just blurted out, “Why does God love you more than He does me? You have a godly husband and everything is wonderful for you. My husband isn’t a believer and our marriage isn’t anything like yours.” Suddenly the distance and hostility I had felt from her made sense as the envy and jealously she had harbored against God and me came pouring out. I was able to share with her that God does not have favorites and that He is working in each believer’s situation for good.

We moved from our neighborhood shortly after this and it saddens me even now to realize that envy and coveting kept us from being the friends we could have been had that not been the case. I feel that we could have benefited greatly from sharing our lives together and growing in our understanding of the Lord’s work in both our lives. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

I trust that anyone reading this will examine your heart to make sure that envy and coveting are not keeping you from something that God would like to bring into your life to encourage and build you up, not tear you down.