Do our charities, our churches, and our missions come first?  Do they receive our time and money only after we have wasted our resources on ourselves?  Do we put our personal and business schedules on our calendars and then squeeze service and mission work where they will fit?  When we give, donate, and tithe from our paychecks, are we ensuring those in need come first or are they receiving what little is left?

God asks that we re-evaluate how we view and spend the resources He has given us.  Namely, our earthly portfolio.  Our earthly assets.  Our relationships.  Relationships with ourselves, our family, others around us.  God asks that we nurture and care for those relationships with deposits of time and money. 

Deposits that build strong families, strong marriages, strong parent-child relationships.  Deposits that build community, empathy, and recognition of those in need.  Deposits that seek God, His Kingdom, His message, and strengthen our relationship with Him. 

Do our relationships with our family receive priority?  Our spouses, our children, our siblings, our parents.  Where do they fit in with respect to our resources?  Do we spend time--perhaps our most valuable asset--with those close to us?  Or does the golf game or the shopping mall take precedent over time with our family?  Are we available when our kids need us most?  Do we get our checkbooks out when that sibling needs a little help this month?  When the aging parent needs healthcare?  When a family member is suffering financially?

Shifting our focus to others transforms our very identity, sheds light on who we really are, how we think and view ourselves.  God’s image.  His creation.  Relishing and enjoying those He placed into our lives, reveals His true nature.  Forgetting ourselves, depositing time and money into those relationships--our earthly portfolio--is God’s grandest design.