Day
Two – Jealous and Stealthy
We are continuing to look at the verse in James from yesterday. Here it is again.
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” ~James 4:1-3, NLT
The next two issues that causes quarrels and fights are jealousy and stealing.
Again it is very similar to the coveting we talked about earlier. We get jealous of what other people have. Maybe they are praised more by your parents that day than you are so you get jealous and start to act ugly toward them. Maybe you are jealous of something new your sibling got. Maybe you are jealous because you are growing up and asked to be more independent while the baby of the family gets lots of attention. Any of these situations can cause jealousy. If we do not pay attention to these things in our hearts we will act out in the way of quarreling or arguing.
We are continuing to look at the verse in James from yesterday. Here it is again.
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” ~James 4:1-3, NLT
The next two issues that causes quarrels and fights are jealousy and stealing.
Again it is very similar to the coveting we talked about earlier. We get jealous of what other people have. Maybe they are praised more by your parents that day than you are so you get jealous and start to act ugly toward them. Maybe you are jealous of something new your sibling got. Maybe you are jealous because you are growing up and asked to be more independent while the baby of the family gets lots of attention. Any of these situations can cause jealousy. If we do not pay attention to these things in our hearts we will act out in the way of quarreling or arguing.
The other issue is stealing. Maybe
you have taken something from your sibling because you were angry they had
something you did not. Maybe you have “accidentally” broken something. These
issues can get really bad if you are choosing to follow your way and not God’s.
However, even borrowing something and not giving it back or not taking care of
it is a form of stealing.
We must realize these things in our
hearts that are not right toward our siblings and correct them.
Today’s
Action
Make amends for anything you have broken or stolen from your brother or sister. Find room in your heart to make that situation right if needed. Then take today to really focus on thankfulness. Stop every hour today and thank God for what He has given you specifically. Then thank Him for what He has given your brother or sister. All His gifts are good gifts. Spend today remaining thankful. Maybe try to write down 100 things you are thankful for today. Do not let your mind get negative about your brother or sisters successes or things.
Parent’s Action
Be diligent to help them remember every hour to find things that they are thankful for. They may need help with this so help them try to think of things and encourage them to think of things as well. Thankfulness usually crushes jealousy and temptation to steal. If stealing is a problem then maybe encourage them to joyfully give something of theirs away that their sibling would like.
Make amends for anything you have broken or stolen from your brother or sister. Find room in your heart to make that situation right if needed. Then take today to really focus on thankfulness. Stop every hour today and thank God for what He has given you specifically. Then thank Him for what He has given your brother or sister. All His gifts are good gifts. Spend today remaining thankful. Maybe try to write down 100 things you are thankful for today. Do not let your mind get negative about your brother or sisters successes or things.
Parent’s Action
Be diligent to help them remember every hour to find things that they are thankful for. They may need help with this so help them try to think of things and encourage them to think of things as well. Thankfulness usually crushes jealousy and temptation to steal. If stealing is a problem then maybe encourage them to joyfully give something of theirs away that their sibling would like.
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