You may have heard the old story about the fox and the grapes by Aesop. A fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of grapes hanging from a vine up in the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with sweet juice. The fox’s mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them but they were hanging from a high branch. He jumped and jumped, but each time, he could not reach the grapes. So, he sat down and looked at them in disgust. “What a fool I am,” he said. “Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of grapes not worth my effort. I am sure they are sour”. And he walked off with his nose in the air. From this fable, we get the expression, “sour grapes”.

     How often do we belittle and denigrate something apparently unattainable for us? Instead of thinking about working harder for what we desire and being thankful for what God has given us, we so often disparage the blessings of God. To make it worse, we tend to envy those who have those blessings and find ways to unfairly ridicule them or besmirch their successes. Such is evil (Rom. 1:29; Gal. 5:19 – 21; Col. 3:5; Tit. 3:3; 1 Pet. 2:1, 2). We need to remember that God is watching us in everything we say and do. He knows if the blessings we desire are appropriate and deserved. Let us not find ourselves with “sour grapes” (covetousness). Instead, we must leap our highest and let God give the increase.

 

          Michael Hildreth is a Christian Counselor in Abilene, TX