Storing up treasures

   As some of you know we recently moved. We had a "nice" house. We lived in a "nice" neighborhood. We lived in a "nice" town. We always thought we deserved the nice things since after all we have been blessed with a great job and could afford it. Right??

   Well, about three years ago we attended a Dave Ramsey class with our church. We realized that even though we had a good income, we still were somehow overspending. We had a nice little $20,000 credit card debt to show for it. (most of that was my fault, I admit) We also had a nice little $500 car note each month and a $1300 house payment. This class is where God started to change our view of "our" money.

   We started our new journey by budgeting. First and foremost we consistently tithed. We saw where the money was going and we changed it around and started telling it where to go instead. It was hard. We talked, we yelled. But we realized after a while that we were making progress. The credit card debt started to diminish. Slowly but surely. We sold the car that we thought we "had" to have a year earlier. We paid $2000 cash that we were able to save and bought a not so "nice" car. We could breathe.

   As time passed God showed us something priceless. We were slaves to our stuff. We were slaves to our wants and have to haves. Our hearts started to change as we looked at "our" money and stuff differently. We realized that nothing is ours, it's all God's. We are only stewards of what we have. We are not meant to be merely consumers with what He entrusts us with. We need to not have our funds tied up in stuff like a big, expensive home or big nice cars and every new gadget that comes out just because we can and think we deserve to. We need to have an open palm not a closed fist.

   Here we are today after a lot of prayer and seeking Him for direction. We felt the call to make a huge leap and let go of the big, more expensive home and buy a more humble home to cut our mortgage in half. We do not want this stuff to get in the way of what the Lord wants to do with and through our blessings. We can't be ready to do that nor be good stewards with all that He gives us being tied up in debt and stuff like a big house payment and car payments or being spent all on temporary things that do not satisfy.

  Our house sold in 5 days! We were shocked to say the least. We found a cute little 1970s home on a pond in a small town. We have been blessed. We also know that happiness and fulfillment does not come in the form of anything cash can buy. It is all so temporary and will all rust away. I rather store up eternal treasures.

  We want to follow the Lord's leading in everything we do and this was one of the best decisions He has lead us to. We want to allow God to use us for his purposes. That includes our resources that He gives us. It's all His not ours. I can't wait to see what He has planned.


Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities! Luke 12:48 The Message



“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being. Matthew 6:19-21