Where Your Treasure Is

Where Your Treasure Is

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19-20

“When my husband and I agreed that I should quit my job to stay home with our daughter,” Jenny confided in us, “our income suffered an incredible hit. And at the beginning of each month, Dan and I nearly came to blows ourselves. As we faced a huge pile of unpaid bills, our arguments did nothing but escalate.”

Interestingly, Jenny also told us that they had argued about money before she quit her job too. “It really doesn’t matter how much we make or who makes it,” she said. “Dan insists that I am irresponsible with money, and I maintain that he is a miserly doomsayer.”

Sound familiar? Money is the number-one thing couples fight about. Since financial decisions have to be made almost daily, it’s frequent fodder for fights. Many underlying emotional issues can cause money battles. Sometimes it’s power and control. Sometimes the fights stem from the couple’s different family backgrounds. What’s surprising to many couples is that fights about money are not a function of how much money they have or don’t have. Fights about money have more to do with the attitudes each person brings to money itself. The more important money is to you and the more you prize it—whether you are a hoarder or a spender—the more likely you are to have fights about it in your home.

Every marriage must protect itself against greed and self-centered consumerism. One of the best ways to do this is to give money away. God has given us all we have, and by giving a portion of what he has given us back to him, we free ourselves from its tyranny. The Bible calls us to break the idol of money by giving it away. And to do that, we must take Jesus’ famous exhortation and apply it to our bank accounts: “Wherever your treasure is,” he said, “there the desires of your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:21).

Talk with each other about your own desires or disappointments about giving, and set some new goals together for generosity in your marriage.

If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil.

—Anonymous