Give Me Five!

A few years back I gave a little boy, who was turning five years old, five one dollar bills.  I did this because I thought he would see five bills as being a lot of money.  Instead he looked at the meager one dollar bills and said, “These are ones, I can’t buy anything with one dollar”.  He tossed them on the table in disgust and opened the next card from his uncle. In that card was a five-dollar bill.  The young boy said, “now this I can do something with”.  To him the single bill stamped with $5 on it, was of more value than the separate bills that I gave him because he couldn’t see past the value of the $1 marking.  Eventually he scooped them all up and announced, “Look at how much I have!”  Holding all of the bills in his tiny hand finally made him realize just how much he really had. 

 I don’t know about you, but sometimes I view people in the same way.  When their lives seem to be in a million pieces, I have trouble seeing them as a whole person; a person of single value.  Instead, I pick them apart as if somehow the person whose life is in pieces holds less value than the one who appears to have it together.  I don’t like admitting this, but it is true. 

People are broken and sometimes it’s impossible for them to see past all the pieces to believe that they can be of any value.  What if we helped them by showing them one by one, the things that make them valuable?  What if we picked up each valuable piece and placed them in the hand of that broken person?  Maybe, like the little boy, they would be able to shout, “Look at how much I have” or better “look at how valuable I am”. 

Short and simple thoughts today and as always I hope that someone somewhere finds encouragement and hope in these words.  You are of value right where you are.

Thanks for stopping by,

Amy