When I was young, I remember a couple of my sisters and I walking down the road and looking through a fence. We wanted to see the nice house that the fence enclosed.

As a teen, I remember going to the local mall and looking in the display windows, wondering why I didn't have clothes like those.

Even in college, we did a project based on Alfred Hitchcock's movie "Rear Window", where we imagined what it was like living in houses from looking through the windows.

I believe that I have always looked at what others had and compared it to what I had. Maybe it's natural, part of our sinful nature to be envious or discontent. I know that it's not because I was poor and others had more. And even now, I want to think that I have changed.

I remember a time when I would cringe to answer the phone (when I had a phone) or when there was a knock on the door. Or even when I was begging for a place to live because, again, we were being evicted. Now, as I live a new life, I am so happy to pay bills. Because I have bills to pay and I pay them! I'm so happy to be able to buy a car (any car will do) and hear the creditor say "No problem getting whatever you want. You have good credit."

But every now and then the "envy" bug will appear again. Instead of being happy for having a roof over my head to protect me from the weather, I'm thinking "I hate my house and want something nicer." Or get upset because I have to work so hard to pay my bills, when I see other moms having the days to spend with their children.

The American proverb says it all..."The grass is greener on the other side." It's the proverb of discontent, where other people’s circumstances seem more desirable than one’s own.

I'm sure if I had a bigger and nicer house, I would be angry for having to work even harder to pay for it. Or if I had my days free, I would be unhappy because I'm not doing what I love (my job!). I can see the other side and know that even if I were to go there, the grass will always be greener on the other side. 

In Hebrews 13:5b-6 it says, "be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?' "

In Philippians 4:11b-13 Paul says, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

Learning to be content isn't hard, but staying content may take a little longer. Contentment comes from within our hearts, not from what the world has to offer. When we have daily fellowship with our Lord God through Jesus Christ we learn that secret of contentment that Paul learned. I can read Paul's charge to Timothy on how to live in 1 Timothy 6:11-21. Because I want to "take hold of the life that is truly life." (1 Timothy 6:19) And learn contentment though my fellowship with Jesus Christ because I want to build my treasures in heaven.

"For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." 1 Timothy 6:7.