Life's Scale

There are defining moments in our life when we have to make a conscious decision on what to keep and what to hold on to.

Dr. Fred Craddock tells a story of one of his schoolmates who spent many years ministering in China. He was under house arrest and the soldiers came one day and told him that he could return to America. The family was celebrating.

The soldiers said, "You can take 200 pounds with you." They had been there for years! Two hundred pounds! They got the scales and they started the family arguments-two children, wife, and husband. Must have this vase...Well, this is a new typewriter...What about my books?...What about our toys?

They weighed everything and took it off, weighed it and took it off, until at last they had it right on the dot: two hundred pounds. The soldiers asked if they were ready to go and they said, "Yes." "Did you weigh everything?" They said, "Yes!"

"Did you weigh the kids?" "No," we did not. "You will have to weigh the kids."

In the blink of an eye, typewriter, vase, books, all became trash. Trash. It happens. Treasures become trash when we have to weigh everything and we can't keep it all.

When the values in our life begin to shift, things of greater worth begin to surface. We've all had to trash things that were once of great value. We have tearfully and reluctantly taken things off the scale in some defining moment-cherished ideas and plans, crumbling relationships, pride of mind and body, financial gain. There are things tangible and intangible that has to go when life calls on us to "weigh your kids."