two similar things that destroy us

Today in the One Year Bible, we read about Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37:1-38:30.

We read that Jacob really loved Joseph alot, more that he loved his other brothers. And so he did things for him, like giving him a "coat of many colors". His brothers hated that their dad loved Joseph more than he loved them. This is called envy.

We often call this jealousy, but the picture above explains the difference between the two words. Jealousy is when you HAVE something and you're worried someone is going to take it. Like if a dog has a bone, and another dog comes over and tried to take it. The first dog will jealously protect his bone. Notice that the second dog is practicing envy. He wants what the other dog has.

Another example is if you're married and deeply in love with your spouse, but another person comes along and your spouse starts spending lots of time with them and seems to enjoy doing things with them more than with you. You jealously guard your spouse from the other person taking your spouse's attention.

So both of these things come from being overly attached to what we have, or being unhappy that someone else has something we don't have. So much evil in our world comes from these two things. If we can learn to be happy for what other people have without wanting to take it from them, and if we can be happy to share the good things we have in our lives, so much jealousy and envy can be avoided. And the world will be a much better place.

God, please help us to be free of jealousy and envy.