Guard Your Treasures
Reflection & Prayer Prompts
Personal Reflection Questions
Take your time with these questions. There's no need to answer all of them at once. Choose the ones that draw your attention and sit with them. Honest self-reflection is more valuable than rushing through a checklist.
Looking Inward
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When did you last do an honest inventory of how you're really doing—not the "fine" you tell everyone, but the actual state of your inner life? What has kept you from looking?
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Which of your treasures are thriving right now? Where do you see health, vitality, or growth? Take a moment to acknowledge what's going well.
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Which treasure have you most neglected? If you're honest with yourself, which part of your inner life has been gathering dust while you've been busy with other things?
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Is there a desire you've ignored for so long you've almost forgotten it existed? What did you used to dream about, want, or long for that you've stopped letting yourself think about?
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Where have you been medicating instead of addressing? What substitute behaviors (food, screens, shopping, busyness, substances) might be covering over an unfulfilled desire or a neglected treasure?
Looking at Relationships
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Who has been allowed access to your treasures who doesn't respect them? Whose words or behavior consistently damages your feelings, your confidence, your peace, or your sense of self?
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Have you been "casting your pearls before swine"—sharing vulnerable parts of yourself with people who don't honor what you share? What has that cost you?
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Who in your life does respect and nurture your treasures? Who makes you feel more yourself, more alive, more valued after spending time with them?
Looking at Ownership
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Where have you been telling yourself "I have no choice" when actually you're making a choice you don't want to own? What would change if you said, "I'm choosing this" instead?
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If someone looked at your behavior—how you spend your time, where you put your energy, what you say yes and no to—what would they conclude about what you value? Does that match what you actually value?
Guided Prayer Language
Use these prompts as starting points for honest conversation with God. You don't need to say them exactly—let them lead you into your own words.
A Prayer of Honest Seeing
God, I confess that I haven't looked closely at the state of my soul in a while. I've been running, performing, surviving—but not really paying attention to what's happening inside.
Help me see clearly. Show me where I've been neglecting what you've given me. Show me where I've let others damage what I should have protected. I don't want to live in shame, but I do want to live in truth.
Give me courage to look honestly at each treasure—my feelings, my choices, my limits, my desires, my loves—and to take responsibility for what I find. Not to fix everything today, but to start paying attention.
You've given me a rich inner life. Help me steward it well.
A Prayer of Ownership
Lord, I've blamed a lot of things for the condition I'm in. I've blamed circumstances. I've blamed other people. I've blamed the way I was raised or the season I'm in.
Some of that blame is fair—people have hurt me, and circumstances have been hard. But I also know that I've given away power I didn't have to give away. I've neglected things I could have tended. I've made choices I didn't want to own.
Today I want to take responsibility for what's mine. Not in a white-knuckled, shame-driven way—but in the way you've always invited me to: as someone with freedom, someone with choice, someone with a soul worth stewarding.
Help me own my treasures, even the ones in rough shape. They're still mine to tend.
A Prayer for Protection
Father, I need better boundaries. Not walls that shut everyone out, but gates that discern who should have access to my inner life.
Show me who builds me up and who tears me down. Show me where I've been handing my pearls to people who don't value them. Give me the courage to say no when no is needed—not out of anger, but out of love for what you've entrusted to me.
And help me say yes to the people who deserve deeper access—who respect what I share, who honor my treasures, who make me more fully myself.
Teach me to guard my heart with all diligence, trusting that from it flow the wellsprings of my life.
Journaling Prompts
These prompts are designed for written reflection. Choose one or two that resonate and write freely. Don't edit yourself—just let the thoughts flow.
Prompt 1: The Neglected Treasure
Write about the treasure you've most neglected. How did it get this way? When did you stop paying attention? What would it look like to start tending to it again—even in small ways?
Prompt 2: The Violated Treasure
Write about a treasure that someone else has damaged. How did they get that access? What did they do with it? And—this is the harder question—what kept you from protecting it?
Prompt 3: The Lost Desire
Write about a desire you've buried. Something you used to want, dream about, or long for that you've stopped letting yourself acknowledge. Where did it go? What would happen if you let yourself want it again?
Prompt 4: The Substitute
Write about a substitute behavior—something you use to comfort or medicate yourself. What feeling does it numb? What desire does it replace? What would happen if you addressed the real thing instead of reaching for the substitute?
Prompt 5: The Choice I Haven't Owned
Write about a situation where you've been telling yourself "I have no choice." Explore what would change if you reframed it as "I'm making a hard choice because _____." Does the situation look different when you own it?
Prompt 6: Who Gets Access
Make two lists. First, write the names of people who have access to your inner life—your feelings, your dreams, your vulnerabilities—who don't respect what you share. Then write the names of people who do. What patterns do you notice? What might need to change?
A Closing Thought
Your soul is not a luxury. It's not optional. It's not something you get to once you've taken care of everyone else.
Your feelings, your attitudes, your behaviors, your choices, your limits, your thoughts, your values, your talents, your desires, your loves—these are the treasures of your life. They're what make you you.
God gave you these treasures. He didn't give them so you could neglect them or let others destroy them. He gave them so you could steward them, protect them, grow them, and offer them freely to a world that needs what you have.
Start where you are. Pick one treasure. Tend to it. Protect it.
See what happens when you treat your inner life like it matters.
Because it does.