[Darris McNeely] The world is emerging from the recent COVID pandemic. I just came back from an international trip, where, again, things were fairly normal, few masks, the airports, and even one day of shutdown in the city that I was in. But again, the world's reopening. We're going back to school. Hopefully, everywhere this fall, offices are reopening. I'm beginning to even spend more time back in my office. How about you? When you go back into your office, when you get back into the full bore of the relationships that we have, what are you going to find and what are you finding? Part of the team? Have things changed, perhaps in the office, in the relationships? Maybe new assignments have been made within the office and maybe someone else has had a promotion, and you begin to look at what is happening, and you might have some feelings come up that we have not had before as we begin to interact with people. It's called sometimes envy or jealousy.

You know, one thing we really need to face when it comes to this is that during the time of shutdown, we have all been alone in our head. We've had a lot of alone time in our head, with our own thoughts, without a lot of other people. And that begins to play games with us. We just need to understand that and we need to face it so that when we come back into our social relationship in the office, at school, at church, wherever it might be, we don't get ourselves thrown into certain problems in these relationships.

You know, there is a Scripture in Galatians 5 that actually mentions envy as a problem, calls it a work of the flesh, not of the Spirit. And Paul, who wrote the book of Galatians says that those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us walk also in the Spirit. So if we let certain problems of the flesh, and envy, jealousy can be those, we're not walking in the Spirit.

And so, it's a good question to ask ourselves, to acknowledge where we are. Number one, just it's honest to have an acknowledgement of your emotions and how you feel. Don't deny negative feelings that do crop up in your mind or in your head. It's part of life. It's not always good. And if it really takes root into our psyche, it can create problems for us.

There's another Scripture in 2 Corinthians 10:12, it talks about the problem of comparing ourselves one with another. And Paul says that they that measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves are not wise. So, acknowledge it as a part of life but recognize that it's not something good.

Here's another tip. Analyze your strengths. Look at what you are good at, what you can contribute to the team, to the office, in the school, wherever you may find yourself interacting, acknowledge your strengths and your accomplishments, and then continue to do good things. Give those attaboys. Encourage people that are doing a good job. Write a congratulatory note and then move on with your own life. But acknowledge that you have talents, you have strengths as well.

And then thirdly, rethink your habits. You know, sometimes we follow people too much on social media. We look at Facebook. We look at Instagram. We look at all these other matters, and we see things and people here and there and we get a little bit envious at times. Analyze your relationships, especially the social relationships. All of this is something to think about as we reemerge, as we look at where we are. Get out of your head. Get back into reality and let's recognize it's a bigger world out there than you think.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.