Envy

You are walking down the street with your husband and you see this woman with beautiful long hair and you say to your husband how much you would love to have hair like that. Maybe you go to dinner somewhere and are seated then you see this family with the most well behaved children and you say I sure wish our kids were that well behaved. My downfall used to be when I would see a woman that really looked great in a dress, I would usually say, if I could look just have that good. I believe all of have had some type of envy.


Yes, this is envy on our part. Sometimes we don't think of it as envy but it is the starting of envy, this can be a problem if we don't get it stopped. The woman's hair probably looks the way it does because she works with it daily. The reason the kids are so well behaved is because the parents work on this daily, it isn't just an on and off job of disciplining your children. The reason this woman looks so good in this dress is because she strives to look well dressed.

These are just a few things a woman might envy another one for but there are many more reason why they envy others. By the way, it isn't just woman that envy other women or another family, men also envy things about other men, maybe it is their looks, families, or perhaps their job. Both men and women can be guilty about envy.

James 3:14; 'But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.' Envying and strife are opposite of meekness of wisdom. We can not have them both in the same heart, envy and wisdom both come from the heart. A person must decide which they would rather have. Do we want to be envious or would we rather have wisdom?

In James 3:16; For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.' When there is envy it will cause strife and then it results in confusion and evil works.. When we find ourselves envying someone else no matter how small it may seem to us, we need to start working on this immediately. The first place to start is to go to God. God is always there to help us. There is nothing He won't help us with if we just ask Him.  God loves for us to go to Him in our need.

As Christians we know we need to work on our walk with Jesus every single day. Even when we have problems and we have lots of them, Jesus Christ is the only way. As Christians we can also have lots of fun. We keep our minds on the things of the Lord, by doing this our daily walk with the Lord is refreshing and enjoyable. Praise Him!!

A Seedling

We have a Maple tree in our yard so in the spring we have a lot of seeds from this one tree. This summer there were several of the seeds that started growing into trees. There were two that I kept my eye on, I don't know why as they weren't any different than any of the other ones except they were in my eyesight and very close to the house.

I am not a gardener but I do love beautiful flowers, plush green lawns (which I don't have), and beautiful trees. I would even water these two trees when we hadn't had any rain for awhile. Well, it started getting cold and then it got colder, I finally decided I needed to cover them with some leaves to keep them warm. One seedling died but I still have the other one left. One night I covered the tiny tree with leaves and went into the house not giving it another thought. Later that night I went out and the leaves were no longer on the tree so I covered the tree up again. Later when I went out to feed my cat I noticed the leaves were off of the tree again. I was getting upset by this time. Then there was a gentle breeze (was God trying to get my attention) and I saw the leaves being blown further away from this seedling. Well, this tiny tree is still there and I do hope it survives through the winter but if it doesn't I know God has a reason why it didn't.

I thought I was doing something good for the tree, after all I was shielding it from the cold wind and keeping it warm. Then I started thinking, how many times have we thought we have known best in a situation so we didn't think to ask God about it and to ask for guidance? This is what I was doing for this tiny tree but now I can see that perhaps I could be harming it. I looked at the trees around and they had all grown from seeds and they survived.

Well, we may survive a situation that has come up but because we didn't ask the Lord for guidance in the situation maybe we suffered needlessly or perhaps we missed out on a blessing God had planned for us. God knows best. He sees the whole picture where we only see what is in front of us but one day we will see more, I Corinthians 13:12; 'For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.' One day things to be known will be open to our eyes and knowledge will be free from darkness and inaccuracy. We will see God face to face and we will know Him as we are known by Him. This will be an awesome time.

I was looking at what could be seen instead of looking at the things that are not seen. I was looking at the tiny tree thinking all the time I could protect if from what I thought might kill it but I should have looked to God for His protection of the tree. We do this with our lives. God is our protector. God is concerned about us and wants us to give our cares to Him. I Peter 5:8; 'Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.'

When will we learn our Father will take care of us in all situations if we just let Him? I am working on this with things that happen in my life, most of the time I know He will take care of me no matter what but ever so often the doubt arises and that is when I need to get down on my knees and talk to the Lord, He will help me through it. I want to say "Thank you, God for your love, kindness, mercy, understanding, and your forgiveness in my short comings and I love You with all of my heart."

Who Told You That

Excuses and more excuses. How many times have we heard excuses? There are several things that really are hard to understand with all these excuses.


Have you ever asked someone to go to Sunday School or church with you and they give you an excuse, this time it is one excuse and then next time they give another? I think the excuse I hear the most when I ask someone to go to Sunday School or church is "I just don't have the time." I mentioned this to my Sunday School teacher and he said ask them "who told you that?" That is a good question to ask them as they usually have no answer for it. We know God would never tell them this, after all it is just an excuse so it must be coming from Satan, he is the father of lies.

I wonder if these people that say they don't have the time ever think 'I need to make the time.' I am sure they don't or they wouldn't say they don't have the time. There are so many ways to learn about the Lord. Going to Sunday School and church are the beginning. Mark 4:9; 'And He said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.' They hear the Word, and if the are listening they will want to read what the Bible says. Now in II Timothy 2:15, it tells us " Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. We know we should study the Bible as we learn the things God wants us to. "In Romans 10:17; it tells us, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." This all works the way it should, now we just need to get them to go to Sunday School and church and the rest should fall into place.

We know God wants Christians to have fellowship with one another. I John 1:7; 'But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.' When we have fellowship with one another we also fellowship with Jesus. When we fellowship this is an association with, sharing experiences with the same interest. We find out what Jesus has been doing in one another's life.

We can lift a fellow Christian up when they are down. We can all praise the Lord together, and we can have a joyful time fellowshipping with each other. Being a Christian can be so much fun and we feel the presence of the Lord. What an awesome time we can have.