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In recent days, my two-year-old daughter has learned her possessive pronouns, specifically the words my and mine. She struts about the house proclaiming ownership of practically everything. "My table, my cup, my doll." "Mine!" Was it only yesterday she was a demure child who willingly relinquished toys to the more aggressive children in her playgroup? She not only lays claim to objects willy nilly, but she also frequently proclaims her desire. "I want that!"

It seems her selfish streak showed up overnight, and, as a parent, I want to nip it in the bud. "Share with your brother," I tell her. "They're not your stairs; they belong to everyone." It doesn't work. "No," she tells me.

But lest we identify the twig in her eye and miss the two-by-four in our own, it might do us some good to take stock of our own cravings. For humankind has wrestled with greed and covetousness since Adam and Eve contended with desire in the Garden of Eden.

When the Apostle Paul warned his protégé Timothy against the love of money, he wasn't just talking about cold hard cash. Covetousness and greed often walk hand in hand, believed Dante when he wrote his epic poem The Divine Comedy. And these "deadly sins" can bear many different faces. Dante's netherworld is filled with a variety of manifestations of desire—from spendthrifts and misers to thieves and falsifiers. In fact, Elesha Coffman writes, "Fully half of [the condemned in The Inferno] suffer punishment for money-related offenses."

Years later, Martin Luther condemned the greedy in many of his writings for the church. Christian History & Biography notes that "Luther was a 'Wild Man' with respect to money because he attacked every contemporary expression of the counterfeit gospel that a person's worth depends on his or her accomplishments." For Luther, sinful desires like covetousness and greed were not simply character flaws but idolatry. "The greedy misuse the world by striving to acquire it; the monastics, by struggling to renounce it. The end result for both is personal insecurity because trust is placed in self-achievement rather than in God."

Most often, the greedy are not only spiritually harmed. When reporting "The Fraudbuster" for Christianity Today, I came across scam after unbelievable scam that investors had sunk millions of dollars into. "How could these people be so gullible?" I asked Barry Minkow. As a fraud investigator and former perpetrator, he should know. He had conned people out of millions of dollars himself, and he knew what it took to convince someone that an investment was guaranteed to pay off 30 percent a year. "Greed" he said, as he gave me a look that said, "And don't think you're too smart to be separated from your money."

"This is a big spiritual problem. It's not how many dumb people are out there," Minkow says. "Greed blinds."

Randy Rowland aptly writes, "Greed steals the enjoyment of what we have because we're fixated on 'more.'" He says, "Greed can take many forms. The desire for money, position, power, prestige, perks." Because it wears different disguises, selfishness and greed can be difficult to identify in our own lives. If you're wondering just how greedy you are, take a few minutes to review our "Am I Greedy?" quiz. The quiz reminds, "The point is not to rate yourself, but to position yourself better to fight the spiritual battle." After all, we don't need to know if we're greedy, just how well we're able to resist it.

Mark Buchanan reminds us that "fulfillment is heaven's business." When our hearts rest in God, finding in him our "all in all," the enticements of the world lose their appeal. After struggling with greed and selfishness, Elizabeth Cody Newenhuyse concludes that Christians can fight this spiritual battle by remembering what and who is most important. "The things of the world rust and decay. We have a much greater Treasure," she writes.

I'll know I have done well in my job as a parent if my two-year-old learns that simple lesson. Learning to share and realizing that all things are not meant for her are important milestones. But if she learns to put her treasure in Heaven, she will have learned something of eternal value.