It’s been an eye-opening summer. A number of power surges blasted our house, killing appliances like flies come rain. Four different repairmen put their hands in our pockets on account of the surges. These repairmen would have found only lent and perhaps a pacifier if my parents hadn’t loaned us the means to fix the essentials.

Our clothes dryer was not deemed essential. A rope now runs the length of our backyard. The longest clothesline in California.

Trouble has also plagued our vehicles. The transmission crashed in our old Suburban last week. It’s taken about four thousand dollars in the past three months to keep this decade-old Chevy on the road. Scott’s truck has a broken air conditioner. But like I sweat taking down the laundry in the yard, Scott sweats driving home from work.

Dryers and air-conditioners must wait. Dental and medical bills for the kids also pillaged us.

It’s discouraging, these worries of the world. Yet the Lord assures me this lesson about the deceitfulness of wealth will pass. For now, I must learn to be content in lack. True joy comes from the Lord, not things like clothes dryers and dependable cars.

The Bible says “…the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful” Mark 4:19.

I get this truth now. Way down in my heart’s pocket where money will never be found because Jesus is there, I understand the deceitfulness of wealth.

Here are a few reasons why wealth is deceitful:

* We think wealth can keep us safe. It can’t. For example: A sturdy home protects against storms, but not always. Note the destruction of Hurricane Irene.

* We think wealth will make us happy. It won’t. Vacations pass quickly. Moths destroy fine clothes. Luxurious meals spread the waistline. Some of the most miserable people in the world are the most wealthy.

* We think wealth can buy us health. It can’t. The best doctors often can’t cure cancer. Or a host of other diseases that destroy the body. Rich and poor die side by side in hospitals.

When I talk about wealth, I’m referring to income on a world scale. America is a land of milk and honey. There are all kinds of things I can’t afford right now, but we have milk in our fridge and honey in the pantry. Most people in this world do not have milk and honey.

Sometimes I stroll through celebrity mansions on the Internet. Many of these are for sale. Most due to divorce. See how money can’t buy happiness? And it sure as sunshine can’t buy love.

I just want to leave you with my list of ten things money can’t buy:

1. The softness of my baby’s cheek when I kiss it.

2. An unexpected hug from my eighth grade son.

3. My three-year-old’s prayers at the dinner table that go on and on.

4. Touring our oldest daughter’s first apartment and seeing a cross I gave her hung on the wall.

5. Watching my little boys play on their slip-n-slide at sunset as dragon flies swoop the yard.

6. Sharing a warm peach I picked off the tree with our younger daughter, a senior in high school who will soon leave the nest, too.

7. Feeling loved and protected in my husband’s arms.

8. Sunday dinner at my parents’ house.

9. Rubbing my horse’s warm, sweaty neck after I’ve rode him all day.

10. When I feel the Lord’s presence.

I challenge you to make your “Ten things money can’t buy list.” Then say a prayer of thanks that the best things in life are gifts from a God who loves you enough to die on a cross for you.