What to Do About Jealousy

Oh my...what to do about dealing with jealousy and possessiveness. Let me clarify that. I don't mean, what to do with people who are possessed (although it's a possibility there's some spiritual manifestation going on). But what I'm asking is, what I should do when the kids get possessive over me or get jealous that I'm spending more time with someone else? With more than 50 kids in the orphanage and 120 kids at the feeding program, it can get exhausting trying to spread the love equally!!

But the two kids I've been praying for the most...Richard (my student) and Markenzy (a boy from the feeding program) are the kids that I've had the most issues with this week.


Richard told me the other day that I loved MarcKendy (one of my other students) more than him. He hasn't grasped that I don't have to give MarcKendy punishments because he is behaving well, while Richard on the other hand, demonstrates misbehavior that merits consequences. In his eyes, affection is the only thing he sees as love and discipline is just a form of malice and hate towards him. But lets just be honest, its so much easier to be loving and affectionate toward a student who is consistently receptive to the love I give rather than giving it to someone who occasionally gives me the cold shoulder when I extend love. Ain't that the truth in any situation? So yesterday I made more of an effort to not "play favorites" and start anew with Richard, even though I was pretty hurt by some of the things he had said. I think deep down he really loves me and cares if I love him, though I'll probably never hear it from his mouth and I'll probably leave with him thinking I still didn't love him as much as I love the other kids. But again, yesterday, he sat in my lap all recess, fed me food, and was such a sweetie pie.

Then there's Markenzy. My sweet sweet boy that I've connected to the moment I got to Haiti. Throughout this summer he's been my pal, walking me to the guest house from the boys' orphanage. He gives me kisses on my cheeks everytime I see him. He protects me from the other kids when they try to steal the stuff from my hand. But when I'm at the feeding program and other kids want to play with me or hug me, Markenzy starts beating up on them or he starts pushing me. My default reaction is to laugh because I'm so shocked at how possessive he is over me. This picture was taken 5 minutes before he pushed me all the way home because he got mad at me for letting another child take a picture with my camera. He thought he should be the only one with that privlege. Eeks...I want to communicate somehow that I really do love him and he has such a special place in my heart compared to the other kids, but I can't just ignore these other kids who are so hungry for love too.

*sigh* It's nice to be loved, but yikes! I need God's wisdom on how to deal with this and am praying that God would give them hearts of understanding.