Greetings parents!
We just finished up our summer series on the first six chapters of the book of Daniel. Chapter six is probably the most well known of all six chapters - the lions' den. Whether you are a regular church attender or not, you probably have heard about Daniel and the lions' den.
The background to this story is that Darius, the Persian delegated the leading of Persia into 120 people's hands. He also put three people in charge of those 120 people. One of the three administrators put in charge was, you guessed it, Daniel! Daniel was so good at what he did that Darius took notice of him and wanted to "set him over the whole kingdom."
Of course, everyone was so pleased that Daniel was being promoted above them right? Not! They looked for reasons to get him in trouble with the king but found none. In fact, they found that "he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent."
The only way they could trap Daniel was by using the Medo-Persian law system against him. They tricked the king into creating a law that no one could pray to any god except to Darius himself for 30 days. They lied and said all the administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors agreed. Daniel surely wouldn't have agreed to this. One thing about the Medo-Persian law is that once it is set into law, it cannot be revoked - not even by the king himself (see also Esther 3:8-9, 13-14, 7:3-4, 8:7-8, 8:11-13). It was only 30 days. How come Daniel just couldn't lay low for 30 days? Because it would cause him to compromise his values.
How did Daniel respond to the new law? He did what he always did. He prayed three times a day giving thanks to God. And that's what ultimately got him into trouble. But God rescued him. The king then ordered those who conspired against Daniel to be thrown into the lion's den, them and their families.
Jealousy is everywhere. At work. At home. Even at church. How do you respond when someone gets promoted at work ahead of you? How do you respond when someone else gets complimented for doing something at home, but you get overlooked? And how do you handle when your kids show signs of jealousy? These are not easy questions to answer. The only person you can control is you. If some bad characters set out to find some dirt on you, would their investigation result in knowing that you are trustworthy, not corrupt nor negligent? I hope so. And whether you get recognized positively or not, God knows if you're trustworthy. That's all that really matters, even though we do like the recognition once in a while.
What do we do about our teens who are jealous of others? We can model controlling what we can control - ourselves. We can also talk it out. Ask why are they feeling that way and explore alternatives to jealous behavior. Keep fighting the good fight.
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