Jealousy

I've been thinking lately and I decided that it is so unfair that we, as human beings, feel emotions that we have no control over. It sucks feeling sad or angry and not knowing why we feel that way. It's the same with jealousy. It's not like we purposely make ourselves desire what someone else has or despise someone because they are dating the guy we like. It's sad that girls are rude, even vicious, when they become jealous of another girl.

I've had girls talk behind my back, saying things that aren't true and truly hurt me. And everyone will say "oh they're just jealous."  To me it doesn't really make sense...I'll be the first to admit that I too feel jealous at times. Growing up I would be jealous of girls that my crush liked or the soccer girls who were so popular. Even today, I will be Facebook stalking (dang Facebook) or reading blogs and I think "wow I am so jealous she has the perfect husband", "they are so cute together, why can't I have a perfect relationship", "her hair is gorgeous, why is mine so lame", "she's so creative or talented"...blah blah blah! And obviously, everyone does this, it's pretty normal. But there has to be a reason behind why we feel certain emotions such as jealousy.

Over the summer I was speaking to a friend of mine and we came upon the topic of jealously and spoke about how it ruins friendships, lives and much more. Obviously, there wasn't much we could do to reverse the feelings of jealously so we just let out a sigh and dwelled on how unfortunate it was when people encounter jealously. After we parted I came across a quote that spoke volumes.

"Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings, instead of your own"

Sometimes we become so consumed in what others have, we forget what we have. I can almost guarantee there is someone who is as jealous as you are because they are looking at you and saying the same things.  It is easy to want more and envy others, but it isn't always healthy. There is a reason envy is one of the seven deadly sins because it can eat away at you causing you to ruin friendships or become hateful. It's hard to take a step back and count your own blessings but you should, because most of the time the things we envy may not be worth envying at all, besides we don't know what goes on behind closed doors but we know the blessings that our behind our doors :)