Our Treasures

We feel God is asking us where does our treasure lie. Is our treasure in the STUFF we have here or is it in what He treasures. We are currently renting our house in Vestavia. We knew our Homewood house was just too small, but we weren't sure how much longer we would be living in Birmingham. So, a little over one year ago we decided to rent and see where the Lord led us. Now that our lease will be coming to an end it is time for us to make some decisions. As for now, we are still in Birmingham.....

This is a picture of a home we could very realistically afford. It is by Logan's (hopeful new school...Westminster...can't say new yet because he has not gone through testing, etc.). It provides plenty of room for our family. Has two great garage doors that Logan would LOVE!!
By every account of the world we hear, "go for it", "you deserve it", "your family needs that room because your kids have special needs". We decided to listen to what God had to say about our stuff/treasures.... In Matthew 6:19-20 we read, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." So, even though that house looks so beautiful we have never even set foot on the inside because we know that is not where God is leading our family.

So, where is God leading our family right now. Yep, back to our old house in Homewood. The one that was way too small for us before. This time we are strategizing everything that will go back in there. If we don't need it, it won't return with us. (Yes, there will be a huge garage sale soon). We are also buying some new furniture that will fit the space better. I am personally so excited to be living with less. Now, I will say we are planning to list the house and when it sells we plan to buy another small house in Homewood, Chicago, California, China...where ever God leads us in his timing.

So, how does living in a much smaller house allow us to focus on God's treasures. We will now free up a lot of income to be able to give more. We can focus on giving more to our friends in Cambodia who are working every day to free children from the sex slave industry, we can give to our friends who are planning to go on mission trips all over the world, we can give some to friends who are working on adoptions, we can just give to everything that God lays on our heart.

We also feel lead to be more selective on our purchases. We want to focus on buying only fair trade coffee and chocolate. As we begin to learn more and more about fair trade, we will continue to add more fair trade only items to our list. Why fair trade? We want to honor those in the industry that are working hard to provide humane conditions to their workers.