Treasures
Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
When we were packing up to make our move to another state we had an unusual number of children’s books. We even had some from when my husband was a little kid and some dating back to the 1930s. As I was sorting through our piles of books my husband said, “Sometimes people have valuable books worth a lot of money and they just give them away or sell in a garage sale.”
This got me thinking…
What if we had some valuable books here?
I stopped packing and began looking up each book to see if any had value. This took me days! We had so many books and I was convinced I was sitting on a gold mine. As I looked on eBay and book sites I saw numbers at $100, $200, even $500 dollars.
Whoa! I’m going to hang on to these valuable books.
I went through each one and put post it notes on the ones which seemed to be most valuable with a possible price it could sell for. I sat in a sea of books piled around me for days. Even though my body was tired and sore, I just knew the payoff would be worth it. My aching back questioned my hopeful but confident assessment.
Once we moved to Arizona I separated the books in two piles. One group for the grandkids and another to store away for selling. I put the valuable books in boxes in the spare room closet and the others in a drawer the grandkids could have easy access to.
One day while cleaning up my guest room I noticed post it notes in the end table drawer with my “valuable books” price tags. I chuckled as I realized the grandkids had gotten into the closet and went through my “high priced” books and my daughter had put the post it notes in the end table drawer.
All those hours pricing each book and the seconds it took for the kids to tear off all my hard work.
The valuable books sat in my closest for two years. I researched where I could possibly sell them but never found a viable option.
Until one day my daughter was over and we walked to a neighbor’s garage sale. This neighbor told me about stores that bought old books. When we got back to my house my daughter and I got to work on finding a bookstore that could buy my treasured books. She started researching stores while I pulled out the books, made calls, and looked up potential price points.
We had a business going. Certainly, this would pay off big time!
Finally, we found the perfect bookstore and we headed out. It was only about 30 minutes away.
We were on our treasure hunt adventure and it was thrilling.
As we walked in I knew we had found the perfect place. They were friendly and had a section all for dropping off books where they made you an offer. I dropped my two boxes of books off and was told they’d page me in about 15 to 20 minutes.
I was excited about the prospect of having some extra cash.
Look at me being so resourceful and bringing in the moolah.
Then, finally my name was called and I rushed to the book counter.
And my offer for the piles of books?
It was $6.25. Six dollars and twenty-five cents! For hours of work and lugging books from state to state. Six dollars and twenty-five cents!
I had to hold in my laughter.
I accepted the $6.25 for the books they were interested in and donated the rest of books.
My daughter and I had a good laugh as we drove back to my house.
I stored these books. I gave them a lot of attention. I kept them from the grandkids. I lugged them around. I agonized over where to sell them. I gave them the title of treasures.
“Do not store for yourselves treasures on earth… for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6
Some lessons come easy. Some a little harder.
Thank you for visiting LuSays. For more from Lucille Williams check out her books: From Me to We, The Intimacy You Crave, The Impossible Kid. And Turtle Finds His Talent for ages 2-6.
