By Ken Askew

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:21

Money matters; and, according to Howard Dayton, “our checkbooks tell us more about our priorities than does anything else.”  Your check register is a journal of sorts that records much more than your cash balance; it records (chronicles) your lifestyle and priorities.

In and of itself, it’s a harmless object, but its details can reveal where you’ve vacationed, your favorite restaurant, where you buy groceries, gas and medicine.  It can tell where you buy clothes for the kids and how much your car payment is.  For married couples it can be the fuel for many and angry fight.  For all, the check register tells a story.

Every now and then you learn a phrase or principle that you commit to memory and carry for life.  Once such phrase for me was, “It’s just money.”  Far from being a careless comment about the importance of money, money is of course a vital means of trade for everyone, the phrase puts money in proper perspective.  Money is vital as a tool but not a treasure.  Let me explain.

To treasure something is to place a high, personal value on it.  Off hand I’d say that most folks treasure their health and the health of their families more than their checkbooks.   In our community, most folks might even agree that personal relationships are more important than their checkbooks.  Both examples, though important, may be shortsighted.  What about eternity?

We’ve been conditioned to live for today.  Many folks live for today and also save for tomorrow (saving, by the way, is both prudent and biblical).  A few folks are able to live today with a long-term perspective, but I’m afraid only a precious few live today with eternity in mind. If your Checkbook Chronicles were published as a book, what would it say about you?  Would it indicate that your treasure and priorities are rooted in the here and now or would it show that you were living today with eternity in mind?

We must live today, but not “for” today, so don’t be taken captive by the here and now; it will be gone soon enough.  True treasure is in heaven, so live each day with eternity in mind.

Ken worships at Tharptown Baptist Church in Russellville.  Truth Matters articles are available online at www.truthmatters.us.  Comments are welcome and may be sent to kenaskew@me.com.