Gratitude vs Guilt

Often, one of the thoughts floating around in our heads at any given time is wanting a job someone else has. Wanting a house someone else has. A car someone else has. A talent or skill someone else has. If yours is something else other than this list, you know it. It’s the idea that life would somehow be right or better if  [insert desire] was added to our list.

But consider this for a moment … someone, somewhere would love to have your job. Would love to have your house. Your car. Your talent or skill. Your … whatever.

It might be someone you know who really wants something you have in your life. Might be someone in another city, state, or country who, if they saw what you have, would certainly envy, maybe even covet, something of yours.

As Christian men, we know wanting for ourselves what God has given someone else—is sin. It is both selfish and ungrateful, all at the same time. We get that.

What if, though, we took the focus off of what we want that we don’t have—and may not ever have—and placed it on the “green grass” on which we now stand, where someone else would love to be. And be grateful for our own shoes that God so obviously entrusted us to walk in.

We don’t need to focus on guilt from wanting what we don’t have, but just get back to being grateful for what we do.

In the Law there are many commands, such as, “Be faithful in marriage. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not want what belongs to others.” But all of these are summed up in the command that says, “Love others as much as you love yourself.” —Romans 13:9 CEV