Treasures.....Earthly or Heavenly?

Last time, I shared how we as a family are on a mission to live a simple life. Not just because it's fun, (sometime it's not fun) but because the Lord has impressed upon us the need to turn to Him to get our satisfaction in life not to this world and the things it offers.

In the Bible, it says in Matthew 6:19-21

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

We constantly feel the pull of the world on us, to keep up with others, buy the newest and greatest, and fulfil our "needs" with things that are really wants. Adult peer pressure is a big distraction from living the way God wants us to.

God knew that these worldly things would be a great temptation to us or He wouldn't have been so clear and direct about how we should live.

So in order to give temptation the boot, we had to start thinking in a different way. When deciding that we wanted our home, our lives, and our hearts to look different than the world, we knew that others might not get it or understand our new focus, but we felt a total peace about what we were about to adventure out into. Our thinking had to change from "I want that!" to "What do I already have?"

We had to make a conscious decision to choose CONTENTMENT.

We needed to start saying "Thank you" to God for what He had blessed our family with, and start saying, "No thank you" to what the world was offering. The world offers temporary excitement, but it will decay and turn to dust, but if we focus our lives on stockpiling heavenly treasures we will have eternal rewards waiting for us.

We think it is so important that any family goal  we have is based in scripture and that we are trying to accomplish it for the correct reasons. Heart issues are of highest importance, because habits wont really stick if they aren't based in true convictions. Those convictions lead us to making decisions with eternal significance.

We've had many hurtle we've had to face on this journey, and one of the biggest has been having how we got  here? No little girls grows up saying,

"I can't wait to just fill my house to the brim with things I don't really need so I can clean, organize, and hoard them!!!"

Yet somehow our house was full of things that we just HAD to have at one point. We didn't stop to ask any questions about the purchases we were making.....they were cool, they were needed, and we wanted them now. Months, weeks, and days later, those same items were stuck in a closet or drawer gathering dust and taking up precious space.

We've had to take a step back to see why some things are in our home and why we bought them. We realized that decluttering and purging is great, but the real way to practice simple living is to be intentional in everything that we do. We realize we can't stop the "stuff cycle" until we start really evaluating what we are bring in to our home. We've introduced a new evaluation technique that we review with any purchase we are thinking  about making. Here are some of the questions we ask ourselves:

• Do I need this?
• Do we have something else that serves a similar purpose?
• Where will this item live?
• Does it fall into our budget?
• Would I enjoy packing this item into a box and transporting it when a move comes?
• Have I talked to my spouse about this?
• Have we prayed about it?
• Have I walked away from it, thought about it, researched it, and still want it?

What are some questions you ask when evaluation a purchase? Have you been convicted about the things your purchase?