photo: canva.com

Have you ever seen a small child in a room with toys they never played with before? Often, they run from one to another and instead of playing with them, they grab one, then another and another until their arms are so full of toys that it is impossible to play with them. But they are afraid someone will take these interesting toys from them, so they clutch them to themselves so they will have them to play with. As it turns out, they rarely get to enjoy them. Why? Because they are so busy hoarding the toys that they never get a chance to enjoy them!

Have you ever experienced that with the gifts GOD has given you? It may be a life experience or a person, but instead of simply enjoying them in the here and now, you feel the need to hoard them, grasping them tightly to yourself.

Often, the gifts GOD has given us over the years become idols. They aren’t bad things in themselves, but the place they take in our lives is bigger than they are meant to take.  stop They have taken the place where GOD belongs and become an idol. This person, thing or experience becomes that thing we decide we need to fill the void in our hearts that only GOD can fill.

It is the answer to the question: What person or thing in your life would not be worth living if it were no longer there? If the answer is anything other than GOD, that thing is our idol. Obviously, there are many people or things that, if absent would cause a very painful loss. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about leaving us with a meaningless life if they were gone.

What is the value of the things to which you are attached? Do they take the proper place in your life?

As we think through the things to which we are attached in inappropriate ways, we need to think of attitudes that we need to release so our love for Christ will be more whole-hearted and thus the love we have for those who we are close to will be put more in perspective.

When all is said and done, what will be left that is worthwhile at the end? Will the energy we have poured into looking good (this isn’t all bad) prove to have been valuable? Will the priorities we have had prove to have been wise with an eternal perspective?

With age, many of the things I have clutched to myself are gone or have proved to be of little value. I look at some of my values and know they were wise, but others weren’t so wise. What about you? It isn’t too late to release these things we clutch so closely to ourselves!