Teaching Kids about Coveting

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Here’s a question for you, how did you do with examining your own heart for coveting thoughts and evaluating your coveting behavior? God can and will do great and mighty things when we place our trust in Him to bring the items and relationships we need in the moment. So, as you work on that, let’s examine how you can help your whole family keep the tenth commandment. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20:17 Last week we defined coveting as excessively desiring something that belongs to someone else and dwelling on the wanting of it for your own. Tara Tegard of ministry-to-children.com has a more kid-friendly definition: “To covet means to want something selfishly, without caring about what others think or feel.”     For example, your child may not play with a toy for weeks, months, or even years, but as soon as a sibling plays with that toy and has fun, whoa, nelly… here comes the fight. The first child is coveting the joy that his or sibling is having with that forgotten treasure. The child may speak rudely, grab, hit, and more to get the toy back. Yes, it is an easy illustration, but it is the type of coveting we parents see every day. Children have trouble understanding that having what someone else has does not always bring about the same happiness or joy we see them experience. We all forget too often that God owns everything, as it is said in Psalms 50:10, “For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.” There is enough for each of us. As Lili from The Bottom Line said, “We want good things, for our children, for others, and for ourselves. But if we covet, we will do things, ungodly things, to attain that which we [feel we] must have. We are in danger of replacing God with that ‘thing’ we [feel we] must have.” Thus, we must consider our family hab