Where is your treasure?

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:16-18

Around the time of Thanksgiving it always starts.  You go to your mailbox, and every day there seems to be a new toy catalog.  Turn on any kid's station on TV and you'll find a barrage of commercials, telling the kids what they NEED for Christmas.  If your kids are anything like mine, they have a Christmas list a mile long.

Christmas comes and goes, and if you're a mom like me, you find yourself saying, "I don't know why we bought you kids these toys.  You don't play with them!"  And in the stores:  "I'm not buying you a new toy--we just got done with Christmas!  You should be playing with the toys you have!"  It seems like no matter how many toys we buy our kids, they're always wanting more.

The same can be said about us as adults, right?  We buy those perfect boots, thinking that's all we need.  But then the store has some different boots come on a great sale, and you start thinking that you could really use those, too.  Or we buy a new car thinking it's the latest and greatest.  But then the new models come out, and your car just doesn't seem right anymore.  We're never really satisfied.

What we need to remember, though, is that these earthy treasures just don't matter.  No matter how much stuff we pile up throughout our lifetime--be it clothes, toys, shoes, whatever--it doesn't matter when it comes to our salvation.  We can't take anything with us.

That's why it's so important to stress to our children that we want to be working more on storing treasures up in Heaven than on Earth.  Enriching our faith with daily Bible reading and devotions.  Giving money to the church offering.  Giving time to those in need.  Sharing our faith with others.  Those are the treasures we need to be concerned with--not the treasures we may want here during our daily life.  As our Scripture today tells us, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the treasure you give us.  Thank you for the gift of eternal life that you share with us--that treasure in Heaven that will never leave us.  Help us to remember that is the treasure that is most important to us--not any treasure that we may have here on Earth.  In your name we pray, Amen.