A friend was talking about coveting. My experience is that there are others of the Ten Commandments that get more air time. Surely stealing and murder make it into the national conversation. Others, like honoring your parents and remembering the Sabbath get overlooked if only because they have fuzzy boundaries. I mean I did not clock into a job on Sunday all those years I raised a family, but I did make supper. My relationship with my mother and father was also mostly ignored in the hubbub of having kids. 

Yet coveting, that unhealthy craving that creeps into most of our hearts has not just one but two slots in the Decalogue. Twenty per cent is a significant portion of the Divine Rules to Live By. 

My friend mentioned observed a very attractive waitress in a restaurant. "When does noticing slip towards coveting?" he wondered. Shifting his attention to the love that he has for his beautiful wife at home made a difference. 

Earlier in the day I had heard of a friend who went out for lunch with another of our friends. My knee jerk response was jealousy. Which is on the spectrum of coveting. 

Wanting what someone else has is a double negative. Not only does it fester within the desire to nab what is rightfully someone else's, it flattens any gratitude for what we already have. The Aesop's fable about the dog with a bone gazing into the water comes to mind. He dropped what he had in order to grab the imaginary bone. He lost twice. 

Perhaps God knows that these intangible temptations are real joy busters. Which is why they get a fifth of the space on life's warning label.