I've mentioned it a few times before, but we are looking/hoping to move this summer. There's a few reasons, but the biggest one boils down to the backyard. We have a small little rectangle of a yard...and three 80 pound dogs. Needless to say, we would love to have a huge yard for our pups and for babies down the road. We yearn for land and stretches of trees and green grass. We also want something that is a little more price friendly for me to be able to work less when there are babies in the picture. We have always said that we never want to be slaves to our house. We want to live within our means, not above them.
We have been blessed with a really beautiful house, though. It was new when we moved in and it has all of the "pretty" features, like granite counters and wood floors and walk in closets. This is where the hard part comes in. We are trying to UPsize our house size and land and DOWNsize our price. That basically means that the inside of the house is not going to be quite so...pinterest looking.
And I'm okay with that, most of the time. I know that pretty doesn't make up for things like fresh air and space. I would rather watch my pups be able to run around freely than have pretty floors. But there are some days when I'm looking through houses online and I find a house with the land/price that we want...and I see inside pictures...and I think oh gosh, that kitchen hasn't been updated in 100 years...and where would all my clothes go...and those floors sure would look prettier in dark wood. That's when my materialistic desires creep back in.
Lately I've been praying for the Lord to take those desires away from me. It's not about the actual final decision on a house, because we are committed to choosing space/land/price over prettiness. But I want to be satisfied and proud with where the Lord leads us to that is appropriate for us. By golly we didn't have granite counter tops growing up and I loved our house all the same. A few nights ago I asked the Lord to speak to me through His word and He led me to this verse, which I've heard before, but haven't spent much time praying over until recently.
There's my answer. Why obsess over treasures on Earth, when the only treasure that matters is in Heaven? I want the desires of my heart to be the Lord and His work.
Faith, family and friends...that is what really matters.
And hey, I'm by no means saying that we shouldn't have nice homes/things. Like I said above, it's just about living within our means (your means are different from our means) and ultimately ensuring that our life glorifies the Lord above all else.
Cue ending of the longest post ever. Happy weekend, y'all!