Thursday, April 14, 2016

Do you treasure people or things?

How do you want to be remembered? Is it for the things you’ve accomplished? Maybe the awards and “stuff” you’ve collected?
What about the people we’re blessed by along the journey?
I’m a competitive person by nature. I like to set a goal and then go for it. I spent most of my youth competing in as many sports as possible.
One of my favorites was rodeo. I particularly liked to rope. Every free moment I had you’d find me roping a dummy in backyard or working with my horses.
Now I’m not what you’d call a hoarder. If you have something that means a lot to you it probably needs nailed down before I start cleaning. It could easily go out if no ones used in a certain amount of time.
Because of this I would have told you I always put people over stuff any day of the week.
But...when I won my first belt buckle as a kid rodeoing, I never looked back. It became my mission to win as many as possible. It was a bit of an addiction.
That same desire carried over into my adult years when I switched to training dogs instead of horses. Still working towards collecting as many prizes as I possibly could.
I was on a slippery slope of collecting stuff over people.
Along the way God quietly started working on my heart. He was showing me it wasn’t about how many prizes I could collect but how many people I could love.
Now I’m not saying goals are bad. I still set goals and work towards them. What I have learned is all the “stuff” I’ve collected over the years is basically collecting dust. It sure doesn’t give me any kind of love back!
People - they're what’s worth collecting!
The time spent chasing my dreams wouldn’t mean much without the people who are on the adventure with me. I cherish the countless times we’ve laughed, loved and prayed together.
Love is what makes life worth living.
We may have to dust off a relationship from time to time but it’s an investment worth making.
The memories with people far outweigh any kind of award I’ve ever won.
When we’re willing to follow where God leads all the stuff in this world won’t matter. Our focus shifts. Hearts take the lead role.
When Jesus called the disciples and asked them to come with Him they left everything and followed. All the earthly treasures stored up couldn’t compare to the desire to follow where He lead. He asked them and he’s still asking us to put people over things.
When we’re following the heart of Jesus we’ll find the 
hearts of those He loves. (Click to tweet)
I'm sharing this post with several other blogger's at these Faith Linkups. I encourage you to check them out. If this post resonates with you and feel it would help others please feel free to share. Easy to share buttons below. ~Laura~

4 comments:

  1. How many people we can love and the people who are on the adventure with us are the most important things. Thanks, Laura. Beautiful thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful Laura. People not things. I wrote about this last week too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. In a house with four sons, I had to embrace this truth -- not that my kids were any more destructive than most "packs" of boys, but it's so much easier to relax about things if you're not valuing possessions more than people. Now, I'm blessed to see my oldest son take the same journey with my sweet grandboy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for this, Laura! There are a number of things that mean a lot to me, but I have never been a collector of specific things or categories of things. I am high on relationships and that is where my heart seems to expand for just one more! Happy to be your neighbor at the Linkup at Beauty in His Grip today.

    ReplyDelete