A Magnolia's Heart Beats

Thanks, Amy, for hosting this wonderful meme!

"If you'll live like no one else, then later you can live
like no one else." ~Dave Ramsey ~

Home is where the heart is.

Matthe 6:19-21 guides us: "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 moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

I usually stop reading there when I think of that verse. But let's go further.

vv. 22-24 instructs us: "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

My heart is in Heaven, but my eyes here on earth get greedy sometimes. Trying to live like everyone else is not to be my goal! I say I don't, but I do find myself "keeping up with the Jones'."

"I just have to have *that* book someone mentions. I just have to buy *those* clothes so I'll look nice at work. I just have to have *this* 3 bedroom 2 bath house with a big back yard. (Okay, so actually the FIL wanted us to have *that* house.) I just have to have this, that and the other. "

What I really need is my treasure in Heaven and to look up instead of looking around me.

When my eyes are focused on God, I'm not swimming in insurmountable debt. When my eyes are focused on God, it doesn't matter what I'm wearing, what I'm reading, where I'm living, etc.

When my eyes are focused on God, I clip coupons, I cook instead of go out to eat, I visit with family instead of going out for entertainment, I focus more on reading my Bible than I do the latest good read.

Does this mean I'm to want nothing on this earth? No, it means that I'm to want God more than I want things that lead to debt or anything that takes my focus off loving Him and storing up eternal treasures. Everything on earth is going to remain here on earth. I sure can't take it with me! Bye-bye, Jones's. Nice knowing ya!

I don't know the context of the quote, but what Dave Ramsey said is true. Living like no one else now is going to help me live like no one else in the future. The eternal riches of Heaven far outweigh the material and temporary riches of earth.