I want to challenge you for a moment to think about money from a different point of view. Jesus tells us that our treasure (money) will be where our heart is.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21

I want to challenge you for a moment to think about money from a different point of view. Jesus tells us that our treasure (money) will be where our heart is. In other words, if you love your family, much of your money will be there. If you love God, you'll tithe and give offerings to charities that spread the gospel. If you love the world, most of your money will be used to buy worldly things. If you look at my checkbook and see where my money is spent, you should get a feel for my priorities.

At first, thinking this way made me feel pretty nervous. Exactly where is my money going? The more I thought about it, however, the more it became clear to me that this is very necessary to becoming a better steward. After looking at things from this new perspective, I've discovered a very real, scary truth. Many of us love the world more than our own families! Maybe we don't really love the world more, but our actions and our money illustrates a very different self-portrait.

Here is one tragedy I recently encountered. A couple that I know has a newborn baby daughter. Their hearts have been opened to a kind of love they had never experienced. Until this moment, they never realized how much their own parents loved them! As loving parents, they want the best for their daughter. They plan on providing a quality education that will help their daughter to have limitless possibilities in life. They want her to have the best life has to offer. They realized that they would need to begin saving as soon as possible; after all, a quality education can be quite expensive. A couple years passed by and I saw the couple again. I noticed that they still hadn't been able to save any money for their daughter's education; however, they did have a nice new big-screen TV. It was a great deal and there was no interest on the financing for 1 full year! What a deal! Remember our definition of money - love. Their money was put into a TV rather than their daughter's education. Does this mean they loved the TV more than their daughter? I hope not; however, it is what they have illustrated. I imagine that they were merely distracted by worldly things.

Don't get me wrong. Having nice things isn't wrong. It is wrong, however, if this "stuff" comes at the cost of things more important. Looking at the world from this new perspective has helped me immensely. My eyes have been opened to see this kind of tragedy occur over and over again. Maybe a larger home takes priority over a family's retirement savings. Maybe an SUV takes priority over a college education. Maybe a stereo takes priority over tithing to your own church. Where is your money? Who or what do you love? I encourage you to take on this new perspective with me. Invest in things that neither "moth nor rust destroys." It'll make your life a lot easier.