Growing Gratitude, Kindness
Uprooting Envy
Growing Gratitude Kindness. Envy is the vice of wanting something that isn’t mine. Which is actually wanting something contrary to what the Lord knows will lead me to the joy, peace, and contentment He has for me. When we don’t stay rooted and grounded in love like St. Paul tells us to in his letter to the Ephesians, we can quickly get off track and end up in such self-defeating and relationship-disrupting behavior.
King David gave into envy when he wanted Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, for his own. He didn’t value her rightly by lusting for her and certainly didn’t value Uriah properly by sending him to the front lines in battle so that he would be killed. Before that, he failed to stay rooted in God’s love for him and the knowledge that the same God who protected him from Goliath when he was a shepherd and provided for him to be an anointed king was providing for him. Instead, he went outside of God’s boundaries seeking to provide for himself.
Another example from Scripture is the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. He was so envious of what his brother had received and may stand to receive in the future that he refused to go inside and celebrate his brother’s return. Because of his envy, he lacked gratitude for the safe return of his brother to a relationship with himself and his father. That lack of gratitude led to a lack of kindness towards his brother and father. We can see why gratitude and kindness go together as virtues.
The Lord has so made us for acts of virtue that our bodies respond positively to them. In a very real sense, the wages of sin are death, and virtue leads to life. When we show kindness, receive kindness, or even witness kindness, oxytocin (one of the four feel-good hormones that foster love, trust, and friendship) is released in our bodies. Being grateful feels good. It brings light, peace, and joy. Being envious feels bad. Our bodies cry out to tell us what we are and aren’t made for.
If you struggle with envy, take some time to praise and thank the Lord for the revelation of His beauty and power in whatever it is you value. This will get you back to being grounded in the Lord’s love and valuing things rightly as flowing from Him for His glory.
May the Lord give you peace!
Margaret
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