Luxury or Reality

As you decide on your career path, one of the things people weigh most is the salary. Rightfully so, as money dictates the quality of your lifestyle. The TV shows today depict the glamorous lifestyle of the rich and famous from their high power jobs to their million dollar weddings. And let’s not forget the multiple cars, lavish mansions and designer swimming pools- luxury all around them. They seem to have it all.

But is that reality? I began to look at the homes I could afford and found a nice home, nowhere near the grandeur of a mansion and it satisfied my needs. At times, I visited other people in different upscale neighborhoods and found that some of them had sparsely furnished homes. They could afford the high end house, but not the house and the furniture.

The more I opened my eyes I began to see what was important to me and it wasn’t the high power job with the high salary and the things it bought. I valued my relationships with the people I love and the people who love me. Not the superficial relationships that come with the money and leave once it is gone.

Proverbs 30:8-9 says it all: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” I have determined that with God’s provision, I have it all.