Love of Money

Very colorful mushrooms in a neighbor's yard.  He tells me that they glow in the dark and that they are poisonous.
We hear people say, "The Bible says 'Money is the root of all evil.'"  If that were the case, only the rich would have to be on their guard.  But what St. Paul really says in his first letter to Timothy is "The love of money is the root of all evil. (6:10)"  That puts us all on guard.
It is almost natural that material stuff like money and possessions would attract us more than immaterial stuff like God.  There are surely a few human beings to whom the world of the spirit appeals more than the things of this world, but for most of us our lives and our minds are taken up with mundane affairs.  Almost all of us have to make an effort to keep money from becoming more important to us than God.  Jesus says, "You cannot serve both God and wealth. (Lk. 16:13)"
What has helped me more than anything to keep money in its proper place is to give a lot of it away.