For the LOVE of Stuff!

I have spent many years focusing my life on what I didnt have and how I was going to get it. We should all have goals but along the way we should be helping and giving to others. And although I volunteered and loved on other with unselfish motives, I used that as a justification of deserving more. I do all this so I NEED to HAVE this. I remember saying or doing the following things... Like I didn have the Louis Vitton Purse, so I would settle for a Coach. I want more and bigger diamonds, This Dooney is not what I WANTED but it will do for now. Can i have a new car, this one doesnt have power windows or doors. I would go buy new clothes instead of doing laundry. I had a job and worked hard, Brian had a job and worked hard, we lived a a nice apartment with nice things, we had a few acquintances, but no real friends, we partied a lot, and if we argued the only way to fix it was to go buy something expensive. Like a tv, a computer, new cell phone, Ipods (i think at one point we had 7 forms of Ipods), or we would drink more. And it was all justified because sometimes we would do nice things for others, and I volunteered.
I look back at how silly this all sounds now. Just saying it and writing sounds crazy, like did i really live my life like that? I never thought of my self as a selfish person and I dont think that I am or was, I just think that all of it was for the wrong reasons, and since God was not the center of our lives it was really that we were WORSHIPING our STUFF and not GOD! And that is what makes it wrong today. That is what makes that life style not the one I want for my self or my kids.
I just finished reading Crazy Love by Frnacis Chan, and that was really the tipper on me letting go of all THINGS and giving it all to God. THINGS/STUFF to me was the last thing that I could control. I determined what I bought was mine, but its not. And I can have a closet full of Coach purses, but for what reason. They only provide a TEMPORARY happiness. I want a life full of happiness and joy, not empty stuff. The only way to get that life is through Jesus. I want to store up my treasures in Heaven not on earth. I read where you have a birthday and a death day and you have no control over either. But you do have control over what you do in between. And I dont want that in between to be full of ugly, selfishness, greed...STUFF. I want it to be full of love, grace, mercy, caring, compassion, service. I want to feed orphans in Ethiopia, and then bring them home to a bed and a family. I want to save lives through nursing, I want show my kids what it means to truly love God, a crazy kind of LOVE!
So I ask, what are you doing with the in between time?