3 Nephi 13:19-21

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal;
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
3 Nephi 13:19-21


This is a pretty common scripture, but today it strikes me.  It is excellent advice from our father... who, after all, has our best interests in mind.  He counsels us to not try to keep perishable items at the center of our hearts... but instead to focus on things that can be ours for eternity.  He is trying to save us from heartache.  If we love first those things that are here on earth--our car, our microwave... or other less humorous non-eternal relationships--then we are setting ourselves up for pain and brokenness.  God allows us this choice, as he always offers us our freedom.  But he still warns us that we can be hurt.  If our heart isn't rooted in eternal soil, then it runs the risk of being washed away by mortal storms.  I had a friend in college who grew up on a cattle ranch... 6 boys and 1 girl I believe.  He told me a story once about this season when a lot of the cows died, leaving orphaned calves.  His father told the kids that any they saved, they could keep the money from the sale.  He and his brothers and sister saved some of them by bottle feeding them.  Over half of them died anyway, and he and his brothers warned his sister not to name any of them... but there was one calf in particular that she named and became very attached to.  Although she dealt with the other realities of ranch life stoically, he laughingly told me of the night they had her "pet" for dinner and teased her about it.  She was inconsolable.  Now, aside from teaching me that I never want to live on a cattle ranch, this suggests to me a similar lesson to the one that God is warning us of here... don't get too hooked into temporary things.  The little girl was not wrong to love... but perhaps in this case, she grew too attached to an impossible future.  We, too, grow too attached to things that can't last for eternity, and we set ourselves up for a lot of pain.  Today, I'm not asking you to let go of any earthly things... but let's try to concentrate on the things that are, or can be, eternal... and on making them the primary focus of our lives, and our hearts. :)  Not only will it prepare us for a gloriously happy eternity... it will save us a lot of mortal grief.