Book Week: Find your treasure
I am on the email list of James Clear, a self-help guru, who often has helpful hints. His passions are weightlifting, travel and photography – none of which are mine. But why would I read material from someone so different to me? Because the advice he gives is useful: find your passion, stick to it with practice every day and the aim for small changes. Why on earth would I read material from someone so different to me? Because he challenges and confirms my way of looking at life. Weightlifting! Beyond my experience or desires. Daily faithful commitment, oh how I want that. Reading the experiences of other people not only takes us beyond our narrow world, it helps us discover what is important in our own.
But we need to reflect on what we read…and on our own hearts as well. Jesus gave this advice: where your treasure is, there is your heart. As we read, we can notice what appeals to us and what we disagree with, who we admire and why, who we don’t want to be like. As we sift over these things, we clarify what is important to us, finding our treasure, we discover what would feed out heart.
How can we help our child/ren find the treasure, the focus of their lives? By helping them develop that reflective spirit that ponders on life. We can do this practically by talking about the books they read, the videos they watch. We can ask them what they liked? What inspired them? Who did they want to be like? Even the simplest picture can give entry into the heart.
Loving Father, your desire is to be the treasure in our hearts. As we ‘read’ our lives and discover you as the source of all goodness, may we help our child/ren to discover treasure through their reading. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear me.