The Seduction of Covetousness

I received these thoughts in an email today and thought that they would be appropriate to share at this time of year. If you're like most of us, you spent a little bit more than you planned on your Christmas shopping, and now you are left with an envelope full of receipts, a few memories of smiles, and well, bills to pay. Why do we do this? Why are we always after more? What are we teaching our kids about contentedness and covetousness? Here are a few thoughts from someone smarter than me on this....

One of the verses we read in our last devotional was Luke 12:15, which says,

And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."

Jesus begins His teaching regarding prosperity in this passage by saying, "Beware of covetousness." In our society, even in the Church, there are a lot of people whose lives are tied up in "things." The focus of their life is their stuff, and doing whatever they can to acquire even more things.

It is what the Bible calls covetousness.

I want to ask you today, is your heart filled with covetousness? Do you find yourself thinking, "I know the missing ingredient in my life, I just need a little more. If I could just get a little more, I would be happy. If I could just build a bigger house and fill it with a little more stuff...if I could get a nicer car...if I could upgrade...then I would be happy, and then I would be successful."?

A little more, a little more, a little more.

The problem is, however, that desire for more never stops. In fact, as we will see in our next devotional, God called a man a fool because he never realized that riches are only temporary.

If you find your life driven by the need for more things, if you are consumed with stuff, if you define your success by what you have (or do not have), then you have been seduced by covetousness, and you will never find the happiness you are looking for.

Do not be a fool seeking after things. Instead, make the passion of your life seeking after God.

Visit the Answers with Bayless Conley website for more ways to Connect with God

Money money money

One of the great things about homeschooling is that we can cover things that might not be covered in school, or change the amount of focus that a subject is given as the need presents. One area that I'd like to spend some time learning on is money. It's so easy to let money issues out of control, and I wish that I had a better plan up front when I was younger!!



I found a neat tool to use to give myself a "check-up" financially right now on bills.com/iq, and I found out that I scored a B on my financial health. Not too awful bad, but I hope that someday my kids will score As. I realize that I am really behind on our savings, for school and for retirement, and it's hard at this point to set aside much, as my husband is really the only one working full time (for pay anyway :)).

I do plan to visit this site with my kids as part of our money training. It will give us a starting point for talking about debt consolidation, debt relief, and debt help . I hope that they are able to learn their lessons well, from my and other's mistakes.....

Stay at home mom

I'm wondering tonight, as we try to balance it all here - homeschooling, parenting, living, paying bills... is it really possible to be a stay at home mom? It just seems so impossible to stretch one paycheck around an entire family.....

Moneysavers

Just thought of sharing this one... Staples offers a teacher's discount card, as does Barnes and Noble, and JoAnn's Fabrics. You just need some sort of proof that you do homeschool - they prefer ID cards of some sort. Anyway, hopefully that will help someone else save a few pennies...