There Are No Little Things…

“The first step, my son…” said Voltaire, “is the one on which depends the rest of our days.” “The power of little things…should be the first lesson life.” This focuses on the fact that every life is made up of little things, and the small beginnings that go into the making of any attitude, any action, any course of conduct are important beyond our ability to calculate. We hear of the salt that savors. It is a little thing but food may spoil without it of the yeast that leavens the lump a little thing. But the bread is flat without it. In some substances the active agent is seemingly insignificant poison perhaps or maybe medicine that may make the difference between life and death. Rightness or wrongness has little to do with size. We speak of petty larceny and grand larceny. The penalty differs, but the principle of dishonesty is the same. “He that despiseth small things, shall fall by little and little,” wrote the writer of Ecclesiasticus. And another prophecy says: “…and there shall also be many which shall say…nevertheless, fear God he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little…God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved…” Perhaps so, perhaps not, but the disposition to do so is dangerous for a little thing tends to become larger. It is the trend, the tendency, the quality of character that is the cause of concern for “a tree will not only lie as it falls,” said Joseph Gurney, “but it will fall as it leans.” Said the Master of mankind: “…thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things…” “The first step, my son…is the one on which depends the rest of our days.” “The power of little things… should be the first lesson in life.”