Where do you store your treasures?

 

When I go shopping I take my time making a purchase. I go to the store several times and look carefully at what I want to buy. I tell myself I need it. I don’t just want to buy the item. I need to buy it.

A few days ago I took thirteen bags of clothes to the thrift store. The bags had been in my garage for weeks. I was tired of saying, “I will get rid of the bags tomorrow.”

Look at the photograph. Please. Do you see the wooden cabinet ? I bought the cabinet from a woman in San Jose, California who had advertised it on Craigslist. I thought I really needed the cabinet to display ornaments. I needed the cabinet.  I didn’t notice until I got home that it smelled of cigarettes I placed the cabinet outside for days hoping the smell would go away. I didn’t notice the glass in the front panel was cracked.  The glass eventually fell out, and the smell of cigarette smoke still lingers in the wood.

I took the cabinet to the thrift store. I didn’t really need it. I only wanted it.

After I eat my breakfast today, I am going to the basement in my house. I will put on my work pants and my work boots. I will be armed for battle. I will pray for strength to overcome the emotional attachment to objects.

Several friends have offered to help me sort through my basement. I respectfully declined. This is a battle that is being fought in my mind. I only need help from one, from He who gives me strength. 

I don’t want to store my treasures in my basement.

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21

I want to store my treasures in heaven. I want to be generous with my time. If I spend all of my days collecting, dusting and repairing, I don’t have time to make soup for my sick friends, write or paint.

Where do you store your treasures?

Please tell me in the comments.