Over the course of my 22+ years of married life, my husband and I have had our share of money worries. A person can know in her mind the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25 yet still have some struggles - battles of the mind - when it comes to personal finances.
I remember one time when my children were very young when I had a huge battle of the mind over "things". I was visiting garage sales in a very nice subdivision. The best places to buy baby and toddler clothing are garage sales, as the kids tend to outgrow the clothing long before they out-wear them. One beautiful summer morning, as I was visiting the garage sales, I found myself looking at the lovely hillside homes, and feeling ashamed of where I lived. I thought, "These people have spent more on landscaping costs than we spent on our mortgage!"
Normally real estate is not something that impresses me. In my years B.C. (before children) I was a tax assessor for six years, and a real estate appraiser for a local bank for four years. I had seen nearly 300 homes per year for my job, so you can imagine that after a while, all the magic and wonder of homes is pretty much gone. Not so on this particular day. I knew in my heart the ugliness of my sin and it shocked me.
What sin? Number 10 of the Ten Commandments - You shall not covet your neighbor's house (among other things).
Covetousness is an ugly sin. Well, actually, all sin is ugly, but some sins are easier to justify than others, but that's another post. Envying what others have, whether it is their home, their job, their husband, their family, their stuff is basically saying in heart that God has not provided for you. That He has failed in providing for you. It's true, life seems to be the result of choices made, but Proverbs 16:9 and 20:24 indicate that we can plan all we want, but God directs our steps. He promises to provide all our needs, and He can only be faithful.
In shame, I confessed my sin before God. How could I accuse Him of not providing for us? My children were healthy, my marriage was wonderful, and we had never, ever gone without any basic necessity of life. In fact, God had always graciously given many extra blessings to us over the years.
Covetousness is common to mankind. I was surprised to read today in Albert Mohler's blog that many millionaires in Silicon Valley worry about not having enough. You can read the article here.
How many of us have cast stones in our hearts at "the rich"? That is envy, and I've seen it among rich and poor, however you choose to define those terms. Yet apparently the financially rich, too, worry about the future and not having enough. A telling quote from the article is below:
Another Silicon Valley millionaire admitted the reality: "Here, the top 1 percent chases the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and the top one-tenth of 1 percent chases the top one-one-hundredth of 1 percent . . . . You try not to get caught up in it, but it's hard not to."
All that does is show me that we are all one in heart. How much is enough? I know from experience that being content with what one has is a great benefit, but it does take a lot of self control to keep one's mind on things above, with gratefulness. How are you doing with that today?
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