A Few Lessons from My Piggy Bank

Anyone who is close to me will probably know that I’m absolutely, totally in love with keeping piggy banks! 😀 . It’s a habit I’ve had from a very young age and it’s actually one I’m glad I have.

The thrill I get from dropping each coin in it is more than the excitement of opening a Christmas gift (which I’m also very crazy about by the way 🙂 ) . What tops it all off though is opening that little bank up after a few months and anxiously adding up each coin to know how much it’ll add up to. This to me is absolutely thrilling! I love it!

After all these years of keeping piggy banks (and I can proudly say I’ve kept a little more than a few 🙂 ), there are a few life lessons I’ve learned and I’d like to share them with you.

Who knew piggy banks could hold more than just a few coins in them?

1. A few drops of water together could form an ocean
   

Throwing a coin into my piggy bank every now and then doesn’t seem like a lot. But when I open it up after a few months, all those coins sum up into a reasonable amount of money.

We all have goals in life – sometimes very big ones. We need to realize that to achieve these big goals every little effort we make counts. A single coin on its own might not have a lot of value; but many coins added up do have more value. In every dollar, there a hundred cents, in every one hundred dollars, there are one thousand cents and in every one thousand dollars, there are one hundred thousand cents. A little hard work, a little effort put in every day towards that big goal is a step closer to achieving it.

2. Sacrifice always pays off

So I have some sort of an agreement with myself concerning my piggy bank. If I’m going to spend a coin on something not very necessary (like a candy, gum or that sort of thing), I get to put that coin in my piggy bank instead. I’ll have to choose between saving up one more coin, or getting that candy I want.

I think in life we have scenarios that are similar to this. Life is full of trade-offs. We always have to make choices between two or more things. If we have one, then we cannot have the other and sometimes though the more beneficial choice is obvious, making that decision is still very hard. If I would use my coins each time to buy a candy, at the end of a few months I wouldn’t get the money I get.

In order to achieve our goals in life, we need to make sacrifices, and sometimes these don’t have to be huge sacrifices, but very little daily sacrifices that actually make huge differences such as getting up one hour earlier than you normally would to read a book or work on your personal growth and development, or choosing a healthier diet so that your body can function better… These are all little changes and little sacrifices we can make but they have huge benefits.

3. Patience

I’m one of those people who unfortunately wasn’t born with the patience of a saint. For me it is a conscious effort I have to make to grow this virtue. I could be very anxious and impatient. So sometimes I would want to break open my piggy bank when it feels a little heavy – not because I really need the money at that time, but because I’m curious to know how much I had already saved up until that moment. The thing is if I open it at a time when I don’t really need it, I might just end up wasting the money I was able to save up and all those months saving up wouldn’t mean much anymore.

We could have the tendency sometimes too to be impatient and not let God finish the work He started in us. It might seem like a good enough deal to you already and so you hurry up to go for it. But you might just miss out on the better deal in your impatience. You might just be few more coins away from a million dollars. So sometimes, don’t be in a hurry.

Remain blessed

Apiseh