“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:17)

When God created the world, He made everything beautiful. Genesis 2:9 tells us that God made trees pleasant to look at and good for food. God wants us to enjoy His creation!

But not all desires are good.

Coveting makes us unhappy with what we have and can lead us to make wrong choices, just like Eve did in the Garden of Eden.

Eve saw the fruit that God commanded them not to eat and she wanted it. It wasn’t because Adam and Eve were hungry. Instead, they wanted to become like God, knowing good and evil. This way, they no longer needed God as their master to tell them what was right and wrong.

Eve broke God’s rules to get what she coveted. That’s why Colossians 3:5 tells us that when we covet, we worship an idol. Why? Because when we covet, we make that thing we want the most important thing in our lives—even more important than God. What we want becomes a god in our hearts.

When we let our desires control us, we can get trapped. Some people want money, fame, or success so badly that they hurt others or forget about God. Sometimes, people are even willing to give up their eternal life because they covet these so badly. This is why covetousness can destroy our faith and conscience.

One trait of the fruit of the Spirit includes self-control. We can pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us and give us self-control, so that we won’t desire wrong things or become trapped by how much we want them.

Our time on earth is very short. We cannot bring anything with us after we die. Instead of spending our whole life chasing after things that don’t last, let us desire to be closer and closer to God and our heavenly, eternal home.

Family Altar

Use these discussion questions and our prayer as a guide for your family altar.

Parents can lead the prayer and invite their children to repeat after them or encourage their children to take the lead, making family altar time a shared journey of faith.

Discussion questions:

• How does wrongly wanting something (covetousness) lead to other sins?

• How does media and the internet make us more covetous?

• How can we become more contented with what we have?

Prayer in words:

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Dear God, thank You for all that You have given us. Help us to have self-control and not to desire things in a way that makes us forget You. Teach us to be content. You will always give us what we need. We are your precious children and You will always take care of us. We love You, Jesus. We praise Your holy name. Amen.