Little things add up

We got up early and packed lunches before my sisters, cousin and I toured the Grand Canyon earlier this year. As hunger and thirst struck us during the day, we grabbed our prepared food packets and kept on trucking around the Canyon because we didn’t have to stop to hunt down a restaurant or drink dispensers. I didn’t think much about it until someone commented about our frugality in taking food with us to the Grand Canyon.
My cousin shook off the comment, “No, we were simply choosing to spend our money elsewhere.”
I wish the parents who told me their kids could not go on a planned field trip with their friends had made that choice. The parents blamed the children for their lack of funds. “They all wanted to go out and eat this week.”
But it was the parents who did not choose to put the money for the trip first by reminding their kids, “If we go out to eat today, there won’t be money for your field trip on Saturday.” Instead, a long-time planned activity disappeared into the cash register of a fast, food place.
A few dollars spent here and there speak very loudly about what is most important to us.
Years ago one of my sons returned from the annual school Valentine’s party rather sad for his friend who had not been able to bring any Valentines to the party. When my son asked about it, his friend said, “My mom said she didn’t have any money for them.”
An excuse with out a reason – both parents had enough money for their cigarettes which cost far more than one inexpensive package of silly cards to help their son feel included at a school party.
It is easy to find excuses. Sometimes the reality is that today’s yes dictates tomorrow’s no and vice- versa.
The little things add up like termite meals: Termites don’t look like much, but, cost wise at $2.5 billion per year in damage to properties in the United States, their little bites are more destructive than all of the headline grabbing tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and fires, according to the napsnet.com website.
Brother Andrew in his 1960s autobiography “God’s Smuggler” realized a little bit here and there added up. He needed books to complete his education. He felt called to serve God as a missionary. Before he could serve, he had to make up the schooling he had missed when war descended on his homeland of Holland. Lack of money for the requisite books hindered his studies.
“I was pondering the problem over a cigarette one evening when it occurred to me that I was holding the answer in my hand. I looked at the slender white tube with smoke curling pleasantly from its tip. How much did I spend for these things every week? I figured it up and was enlightened. Enough for a book, every week of the year. Enough to own the volumes I was reading now a few pages at a time in the rear of a bookstore,” he wrote. It wasn’t easy for him to stop, but he did – and in return accrued the books and education he needed. Eventually he went to missionary training school. The rest is history – Brother Andrew’s impact continues to be felt around the world.
Termites, a quick cigarette or fast meal, not much in the greater scheme of things, but piled up over time they can destroy our homes, our goals and our dreams more effectively than half a dozen, uncontrollable catastrophes.