Jealousy Ruins People

I've recently been thinking about a few less-than-ideal-situations I've encountered, and it occurred to me that the strangeness of them all is a common spirit of the old green-eyed monster, jealousy. 

Jealousy causes irrational and hypocritical expectations of others. 'While keeping life and experiences painfully close to the vest in a harrowingly tight-lipped fashion, Beatrice demanded to know why her cousin's pet-sitter didn't personally tell her about her new throw pillows!'

It causes us to stop engaging with what someone is saying about themselves and instead make a comment pertaining to ourselves.  "Um, when I said what I just said it was for this reason, not for you to suddenly get paranoid about your self and shift the conversation in a different direction about you...but ok...let's talk about you now".

Left unchecked, jealousy feeds passive-aggressive, destructive thoughts and behavior. "Wrongly convinced she was being shunned by her wealthy friend, Brittany bought a villa she couldn't afford, and waited months before telling those she knew well. This led to sneaky behavior and wrongly suspecting others were being sneaky toward her. What followed was Brittany being seen as evasive and dishonest, which then did lead to her friendship being damaged, all because Brittany became what she wrongly perceived in others."

There are people who are noteworthy hypocrites, and the root cause can be jealousy. These folks genuinely give the absolute least in an area that they demand the most of others in. Rather than ask themselves why such and such happens, these folks can only see themselves as wrongly not getting first bidding. They deserve it, just ask them!  

What we give comes back to us...it is the old reaping and sowing system God set up. Why aren't we satisfied with the results of our relationship efforts? Obligatory acts look very different from close relationships. If you aren't close to people you want to be close to, honestly look and see if you are behaving in a way to cause things to be as they are. Reputations are often built by repeatable behaviors.