I’ll never forget my first visit to IKEA. If you are fortunate enough to live near one of these colossal stores, you can probably relate to my overwhelmed feeling. If you don’t have an IKEA close by or if you (like I was) are unaware of the magnificence, let me explain.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px ‘Helvetica Neue’; color: #454545}
{We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Occasionally posts contains other affiliate links as well.}
As I wandered the store- everything is arranged in a semicircular manner, so you can’t walk the aisle, you have to circle around and see everything- I began to lust. I began to dream. I began to explain to my husband why we needed everything in the store and how we could possibly sell our children to get it. (Just kidding…sort of.)
I was rather convicted by the time I came home. Not because I had been to the store. It was a great store, and if you were in the market to buy furniture, they have some great prices. But, because I had allowed myself, if only for a moment, to get caught up in the mindset; “If I just had a little bit more, I could be happy.”
amzn_assoc_placement = “adunit0”;
amzn_assoc_search_bar = “true”;
amzn_assoc_tracking_id = “goorea03-20”;
amzn_assoc_ad_mode = “manual”;
amzn_assoc_ad_type = “smart”;
amzn_assoc_marketplace = “amazon”;
amzn_assoc_region = “US”;
amzn_assoc_title = “Bible Journaling Resources”;
amzn_assoc_debug = “false”;
amzn_assoc_ead = “0”;
amzn_assoc_linkid = “1eb803995c9cf730f76edaefc0fddeed”;
amzn_assoc_asins = “0718088646,1497202728,B00C5YRIDG,B01GLS0C2K”;
Later, I was reading Psalm 49. Even waaaay back then, apparently folks struggled with this. The Psalmist reminds us that wealth is fleeting:
10 For he sees that even wise men die; the [self-confident] fool and the stupid alike perish and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is that their houses will continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands their own [apart from God] and after their own names.
12 But man, with all his honor and pomp, does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.
13 This is the fate of those who are foolishly confident, yet after them men approve their sayings. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
We studied Ancient Egypt earlier this year in our homeschool and learned how the Egyptians used to put so many of their valuables and much of their wealth in their tombs to take with them into the afterlife. You know what, they had a bitter wake up. Those things do not last. They are temporal. We cannot take them with us.
So, it is fun to shop in a magnificent store like IKEA. It is even fun to buy something if you can. (I got some great plastic cups and bowls for my kids on my first visit, and we still use them today!)

0 comments