You can't take it with you!

I was sitting in staff meeting last Monday night when wise words fell from Kazia's mouth..."You can't take it with you!" I think we were talking about explaining to our kids why they couldn't always have everything they wanted. Kazia mentioned that she could still hear her Dad ringing off this simple saying. Well, today as I looked around my house I certainly needed to hear that.

Ladies, if you are anything like we me, we take our house seriously. Now, I wish I could say that I kept it cleaned up, laundry always put away, and no dirty dishes piled up at the sink, unfortunately this is pretty much never the case unless you give me a 6 hour notice that you are stopping by. I just like to know that if I did get to spend the 6 hours working on it that I could make my house look nice and presentable.

Well over the past two weeks if it is possible for it to break it did: the lamp on our tv went out, the toilet thing-a-ma-bob stopped working, the other toilet was running, the valve on the tub broke, the shower backed up, the transition pieces between our wood floors and other rooms all came up (Tyler didn't help with that at all ;) ) and to top it all off Scott's car finally died. As I looked around at my house today and found tears streaming down my face, I heard Kazia's sweet voice comforting me, "You can't take it with you! You can't take it with you! You can't take it with you!"

Now ladies, I know, in my head, where my treasure lies, and that it's not on this Earth. But sometimes my head and my heart aren't always on the same page. Today my heart was broken at the disrepair of my safe place, but I had to find a way to tear my eyes away from what they see in the natural to what God sees in the supernatural. No, my house doesn't look clean to God, but more importantly that isn't what He is interested in in the first place. He is simply interested that I keep my ears in tune to His voice, and keep my spirit chasing after His. God revealed to me today that the part of me that still finds my value in the things of this world has to die, so that more of me is open to be filled up with his everlasting joy. Ladies, an old friend of mine always used to tell me, "Take care of your crap before God has to!" boy do I wish I had heeded her advice and torn my self-worth away from my house prior to my multi-stage breakdown today. Thank you, Lord, for dealing with me so gracefully! I encourage you to take stock of your value system. Is your treasure really in heaven, or do you just 'know' that it should be?

I love you ladies! I can't wait to share in the joy God has stored up for us together someday, but for now I am going to actively remind myself when I look at the things of this world that "I can't take it with me!"

~Laura

20I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me. 21I don't turn my back on God's undeserved kindness.If we can be acceptable to God by obeying the Law, it was useless for Christ to die.
-Galations 2:20-21