As a family was driving home from church one Sunday, the father went on and on, complaining about the worship service. It was too long. The sermon was boring. The songs were too slow. Finally his son interrupted, “Daddy, I thought it was a pretty good deal, especially since you only had to pay a dollar for the whole family!”

You might find some humor in this story. Some people will look at the amount of the man’s offering and laugh, thinking that it is small and insignificant. But that’s not the real point. It is not the amount that is shameful, it is the state of the man’s heart. It is the heart that God sees, and the heart that he values above all else.

“…The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”–1 Samuel 16:7.