When what you have to offer will barely make a dent, Dream Big.

Several months ago a couple of my kids wanted to go spend some of their hard earned spending money to purchase some small pieces of plastic personified food and housewares.  (It is a particular toy item that I will not choose to advertise here.) My husband learned of their plan and gave them an inspiring talk about not wasting money on that kind of thing.  He talked to them about saving it for something bigger, or more useful.  I listened with skepticism.  I didn't think his talk would have any effect on their desire to spend.

I was wrong.  Really wrong.  In fact, I'm a little sad that I didn't stick around to hear all of what he said.  All I know is that after a brief pep talk, two kids emerged from our room with a resolve to combine their resources and save for something "really big".  They talked for a while and they came to me, excited about their new plan.

"We are going to save our money for a trip to go to Bolivia.  How much does it cost to go to Bolivia?" (They have a beloved set of grandparents that live in Bolivia, and we often talk about going to visit them some day.)

I almost didn't want to answer, because I didn't want to discourage them, but I said, "Well, it will cost about $2000."

Without stopping to truly absorb what I had just said, the oldest child calculated out loud.  "Okay, so if we both go, that's $4000, and we should take at least one grown up with us, so that's $6000.  And right now with all of our money together we have $40.  So we just need another...  Five thousand, Nine hundred and ....  Sixty dollars."

I nodded.  "Yep, that's all.  Except if you two save up four thousand dollars to go to Bolivia, Mama or Papa will pay our own way."  It was really the least I could offer.

In that moment, I realized something.  I am easily overwhelmed or deterred when the task in front of me is larger than the resources that I personally have access to.  Broken down buildings that I can't fix, or amounts of money that sum up to several hundred times over what I actually have to offer.  I quickly see it as beyond me.

But God invites us in to that place.  To offer our small into His Big and experience something that is beyond us.

Walk into that place.  If you are having trouble with that can I make a suggestion?

Connect yourself to a child.  They have too much faith to dream small dreams.