Families today are so busy. So tired. So restless. So full, yet wanting even more. Like shoehorning large feet into small shoes, we’re forever forcing yet another activity into already crammed schedules. Maybe there’s a better way.

Ironically, some of the happiest people have the simplest lives and the grandest treasures. They sacrifice the good to secure the great. Though rarely lacking for things to do, they do something that others lack – they store up rust-less treasures.

I’ve seen 500 impoverished Indian pastors risk their lives to attend a training event – to store up rust-less treasures. And I watched a Kenyan woman build a fire and burn her only treasure – charms from a witch doctor – to trust a Savior she never before knew existed … because this Jesus offered true treasures.

Matthew 6:20 says, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.” (NASB). If so, you’re neither resting up nor rusting up. You’re storing up.

Sometimes, we don’t store up rust-less treasures because of neglect and inactivity (moths). Sometimes, it’s a lack of vigilance and protection (thieves). But all too often, it’s due to rust.

Rust often doesn’t result from inactivity. As I learned in Iowa, busy cars can rust more than unused cars for two reasons: 1) excess exposure and 2) lack of prevention. So too, today’s families often rust out because they’re too busy, too exposed, and too unprotected. But this doesn’t have to be YOUR family! You can help your family experience rust-less treasures.

3 steps for restless families to store up rust-less treasures

  1. Choose Your Treasures

I named my first son Joshua for one reason – because the exodus hero, Joshua, said: “Choose for yourself today whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). He knew that rust-less legacies don’t happen by default. We don’t allow them; we must create them. They are the product of intentional parents, integrous character, and intriguing values.

Rust-less legacies start by choosing well. And choosing well starts with knowing God well and learning how He has gifted and impassioned you and your family for His glory.

  1. Treasure Your Choices

Choosing is great. But it’s fruitless without the second step of storing up rust-less family treasures: treasuring your choices. You have to keep embracing them or they soon evaporate.

Rust-less treasures are like a great marriage. I love my bride more today than when we exchanged wedding vows. Why? Because we’re still treasuring the commitment we made 37 years ago. Then again, the best way to prepare your kids to treasure God is for them to see you treasure your spouse. For although love isn’t always an easy choice, it’s a joyful choice when it reflects God’s rust-less love for us.

  1. Teach Your Treasures (Don’t Keep Them a Secret)

As my dear friend, Dianna Booher, says: “It’s difficult to lead people to a place they cannot see, to an understanding you yourself do not have, to a goal you cannot communicate.” She’s so right.

You simply can’t keep your family treasures a secret. If you don’t articulate and communicate the legacy you want for your kids, how can they understand it? And if they don’t understand it, how can they personalize it and pass it down in their own unique ways? We must both instruct them and inspire them. Enlighten them and enliven them. Fuel them up and fire them up.

Yes, today’s busy families need rest. But rest isn’t the goal. Leading them to trust the God who loves them enough to die for them, live in them, and speak through them … that’s the goal. And that doesn’t happen with too much rest. It happens when we aren’t too busy, too exposed, and too unprotected to run back home to the Father who anxiously awaits our return.

Then again, our loving God sometimes allows us to have too little rest in order to ensure we don’t have too much rust.

Questions: What treasures do you want to choose for your family? What is something you can do today to treasure those choices and teach them to your kids?