KEYS TO A HAPPY LIFE-AVOID ENVY

 2. AVOID ENVY

Envy is defined as "the painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another, accompanied by a desire to possess the same advantage."  Like a malignant growth, envy can take over one's life and destroy happiness.  How might envy take root?  How can we recognize this trait? And how can we combat it?  

The Encyclopedia of Social Psychology observes that people tend to envy their equals, perhaps in age, experience, or social background. A  salesman, for instance, might not envy a famous movie star.  But he may envy a more successful fellow salesman.

To illustrate: Certain high officials in ancient Persia envied, not the king, but a brilliant fellow official named Daniel.   Indicating how  unhappy those men must have been, they even schemed to kill Daniel! But the plot failed.  (Daniel 6:1-24)  "It is important to recognize the hostile nature of envy," says the aforementioned encyclopedia.  "This hostility explains why envy is associated with so many historical cases of aggression." 

How can you recognize envy? Ask yourself:  "do a peer's successes delight or deflate me?  If a sibling, talented classmate, or fellow worker fails in some way, am I sad or gleeful?' If you answered "deflate me" and "gleeful," you may be nurturing envy.  (Genesis 26:12, 14) "Envy," says the Encyclopedia Psychology, "can poison a person's capacity to enjoy the good things in the life and snuff out feelings of gratitude for life's many gifts. . . .Such tendencies are hardly conducive to happiness."

We combat envy by cultivating genuine humility and modesty, which enables us to appreciate and value the abilities and good qualities of others.  "Do nothing out of contentiousness or out of egotism," the Bible says, "but with humility consider others superior to you." -Philippians 2:3. 

Next time: KEYS TO A HAPPY LIFE-CULTIVATE LOVE FOR PEOPLE

From the Awake! magazine 2014