But lay up for yourselves treasure 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. — Matthew 6:20-21
I will never forget the day I came home from school to find our house burglarized and all my jewelry stolen. I was heartsick to have lost so many precious things. Any jewelry I received after that, I hid in a coffee can in our kitchen pantry. We were not members of the Church, so a coffee can blended right in. It became so cumbersome to get the can, dig out a piece of jewelry, and put it back that I eventually stopped wearing my jewelry.
Three years later, my dad and I found the Church and were baptized. I went off to BYU. I left my jewelry behind and all but forgot about it. When I came home for the summer, I helped my dad clean out the kitchen pantry. We threw away things that no longer had a place in our lives like tea bags, coffee pots and old cans of coffee. Weeks passed before I realized what I had done.
When I had an occasion to wear my jewelry, I reached into the pantry for the coffee can that was no longer there. I cried aloud as I recalled my mistake. Dad came into the kitchen asking, "What happened?" Through my tears, I told him. He looked at me and said, "Don't worry about those things. You're storing up treasures in heaven."
I looked up the scripture in Matthew and thought about my "treasures in heaven," like the joy the gospel brought into my life, the knowledge that we could be a forever family with my mom who had passed away, my newfound relationship with the Savior. My heart was in those heavenly treasures far more precious than gold. I am grateful for a kind, wise father who showed me treasures of eternal worth. — Laura Kimball, Glenmoor 5th Ward, South Jordan Utah Glenmoor Stake