By Ginny (MAD21)
"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being." (Matthew 6:21, The Message)
I believe every family should make a list of what is most important to them. Husbands and wives need to have a list needs and things they value just between the two of them, but there also needs to be one for the family as a whole. The list should be kept somewhere it will be seen every day, in our Bibles, on our refrigerators... Somewhere we can see it as a reminder. I know if I get to the point when I am overwhelmed, my priorities are out of balance.
I believe it's important to periodically look at how our family is spending our time and money. These are both easy to measure and will quickly show you what things you spend the most on. It holds us accountable to our family's priorities. I never want to look back and regret what we chose to do with our lives.
When my husband and I decided to get married, we had a lot of discussions regarding the general things we wanted for our future such as: careers; house; travel; and kids. And then we made decisions based on those desires. For example, we knew that if we had children that I wanted to stay at home with them. So we wouldn't have the pressure for a second income, we made all of our financial decisions all based on his salary alone. Three years later when we had our first daughter, I was able to quit my job and start my life as a stay-at-home-mom. I have loved every minute of it (yes, even the bad ones), and because we made sure to stick with our family's priorities those first few years, we were easily able to adjust to living on one income.
TIME
If you find yourself overwhelmed, running all the time, and you reach a point when you realize that you never see each other (or just not often enough), you need to look at your priorities. Work, hobbies and sports are not bad things unless they are taking over your entire schedule and you get no time to just be together as a family.
Our girls love to play. They love having down time at home when they aren't in a hurry to get somewhere. So for them, as much as they love gymnastics, soccer, riding, etc., I need to make sure that they aren't busy participating in all their sports and activities so much that they don't get any time at home to play. They can go a little while being on the run all the time, but it eventually catches up to them and then no one is enjoying anything.
Every so often, take a look at your family calendar/schedule. I suggest every six months. Talk together as a family and find out how everyone feels about the current schedule and make adjustments.
MONEY
This one should be pretty obvious. When you are making financial decisions and working on your family budget, be sure to keep your family's priorities in mind. If your priority is to live debt-free, be sure you aren't spending more than you are making. If you want to send your kids to a private school, you probably can't afford to also buy a new car every few years or go on expensive vacations every summer. Find a way to hold yourselves accountable to the priorities you've made for your family.
It's important to include the kids in some of the family's financial decisions. If they understand the sacrifices and choices we have to make as parents as they grow up, they will most likely make better financial choices themselves as adults. Helping them to manage their own money is important, too. Help them make priorities for the money they earn and hold them accountable. Teach them how to tithe, save and spend.
OUR TREASURE
The bottom line is, we do what we need to do to live the best life we can this side of heaven. Living in a nice house, driving a fancy car and going on lot of vacations... none of those things would be worth anything if we didn't have each other to enjoy them with. If we are working all the time to pay off our debt, or being involved in sports and activities so much we never see each other, there needs to be a change in priorities.
The most important thing in our priorities should be to love the God that made us and make sure we are building our family up in love and faith. Our treasure isn't here, our treasure is waiting for us on the other side of heaven. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy the journey, just don't get so focused on the journey that you forget where you are going.
This post is a participant in a blog carnival over at Peter Pollock's place.
Be sure to go and check out what everyone else wrote on: Treasure.