“Do your little bit of good where you are. It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Desmond Tutu
Remember when you were a kid and you had all those big dreams about what you would become? A princess, a baseball MVP, the president, a rock star.
You were going to be famous and special. You were going to cure cancer and go to the moon. You were going to do things that had never been done before.
As kids, we dream big. We don’t see limitations, only possibilities. The only thing holding us back is the boundaries of our own imagination.
But as adults, we listen to our inner nay-sayers. We settle instead of reach. We think about “why should I?” instead of “how can I?” We say we’re practical, but we’re really just pessimistic.
And in that mindset, we can look around at the world’s problems and only see all that’s wrong and broken. We don’t see what’s working, we don’t see who’s helping, and we don’t see how we can be a part of it.
I admire that Bill and Melinda Gates gave so much of their wealth to worthy causes. By no means were they the widow tithing her last two mites, but that money can do a lot more good out in the world than in their investment portfolio.
The Gates have a lot of money and gave a lot of money. But the size of the contribution isn’t the only thing that matters.
We look at our own circumstances and think there are too many problems in the world for our meager resources to help. Our drop in the bucket will never fill it. That’s our nay-sayer talking.
If every one of us helped just a little—with our money, our time, our God-given skills—we can cumulatively make a huge difference.
Just because we’re adults who have to go to work (and not as a rock star) and deal with life’s everyday struggles doesn’t mean that we can’t still think like a kid. We can still stretch our imagination and see our own potential.
We can still help. We can still bring about change. We can still do things that haven’t been done before.
We can still dream and make a difference.
Have a blessed Monday!
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