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Key Bible Verse: "Beware! Don't be greedy for what you don't have. Real life is not measured by how much we own" (Luke 12:15). Bonus Reading: Job 31:24-25

Growing up, my brothers and I were notorious present-beggars. We'd get our minds set on the ultimate Christmas toy, then beg relentlessly. As we got older we became more skilled (or so we thought), strategically placing the Sears toy catalog open to the right page in places we knew Mom and Dad would look: in his recliner, under her pillow, in the refrigerator.

One year we set our sights on a big yellow G.I. Joe troop transport with six oversized knobby wheels. The commercials showed it careening through rugged battlefields, rushing Joe and his Kung Fu grip to the action. Well, our subtle "product placement" worked; we got the toy for Christmas. We rushed out to play with it, and quickly realized our yard was pretty much … flat. No rugged battlefield to be found. Sure, with a little imagination we made the toy work, but I couldn't escape a tinge of disappointment.

So it goes with stuff—and the chase isn't confined to childhood. Many a man has convinced himself he should pull the trigger on the bigger TV, the fancier fly rod, the sportier car. It never satisfies, does it? Solomon said that "Those who love money will never have enough" (Eccl. 5:10).

—Mark Geil in Georgia

My Response: What potential possession am I emotionally chasing? Can it deliver on my expectations?

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Help me, Lord, to break the small child's compulsion to say, 'Mine! Mine!' and loosen my grasp on things.

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