God is No Dummy

When God created man, He must have known that we would be so imperfect. After all, He had all kinds of rules for us to follow that are supposed to save us from ourselves. The Old Testament rules about cloven hooves and all being now mostly obsolete, but the Ten Commandments are so basic and right to the point, He had to have known the kinds of things that would drag us down. My biggie is the whole covet issue. Covet is an old word. One that confused me as a youngster. I knew it wasn't cover(Why would you cover your neighbors goods?), but what did covet mean? The nuns quickly disabused me of the notion that it meant steal. Why repeat that again after "Thou shalt not steal"? I couldn't fathom the stealing of a spouse at the age of 6. What even is a spouse anyway? So, the dictionary defines covet this way: cov·et
1. to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others: to covet another's property.
2. to wish for, esp. eagerly: He won the prize they all coveted.
–verb (used without object)
3. to have an inordinate or wrongful desire.
OK, that explains the meaning, but definition #2 doesn't seem so bad. I did sort of covet a really cool dragonfly kite a guy had at the park today, but not enough to run up and grab it and run. Are there different levels of covet? I don't think God thinks so. Anyway, back to me and covetting(?). Mostly, what I covet is time. What I mean is the time that others get to spend with the people that I love. I think the proprietary feeling I have for my loved ones is usually healthy, but sometimes, I really don't like those folks that actually get to spend life with the people that are close to me and that I feel I should get to spend more time with. The biggest example I can think of here is my sister and her friend Karen. I have only met Karen a few times, and Margie assures me that I would get along with her very well, but I don't know. Every time I hear of another occasion or even just a regular day, that Karen gets to live with Margie, it kind of digs at me a bit. Now, this is dumb. Margie lives 200 miles away. We talk on the phone and e-mail often and see each other as busy life allows, but how much do I expect? Well, that's the thing, see. It isn't about what I expect, it's about what I want. The truth is, I don't get as much time with my sister and her family as I would like, so I begrudge the time Karen gets.
This is covet. There is really nothing that I can do about it. What, I should tell my sister that she can't have any friends 'cause it makes me jealous? Nope. I hope that these feelings don't make her feel bad. I don't want them to. I guess it just shows how much I love her. As long as I don't punch anybody, we'll all get along just fine. Love you Marg. Anne