Don’t Give Too Much
December 1, 2014
Someone looking at this title might think about all the sermons he’s heard over the years about how it’s better to give than to receive, but there is a downside to this concept.
When you give too much to a child, you take away his motivation to try harder for success; you’re depriving him of the need for him to live up to his potential. By giving him everything he could want before he even realizes he wants it, he doesn’t develop his creativity, his ability to dream about what he wants.
Just think about all the inventions that have made our life easier. We wouldn’t have had the wheel if someone hadn’t dreamed of a way to move heavy things from place to place. That person’s creative brain made it possible for inventions like the wheelbarrow, the cart and, centuries later, the wheelchair and the car.
Ambition is often spoken of in pejorative terms, but it’s the bedrock of every successful person. It’s the motivating force that allows him to set goals, to plan, to achieve great things and, when that is taken away from him, he drifts aimlessly through life.
We have a lot of worker bees, and every society needs them, but if it weren’t for our dreamers, our worker bees would have nothing to work at. It’s because of our dreamers and, the foundation that those dreams were built on, that so many people have jobs. If the wheel hadn’t been invented we wouldn’t have most of today’s commerce and, we wouldn’t have had the Industrial Revolution that’s made our lives so much easier with all our labor-saving machines.
People need to anticipate things, to have a reason to work hard to achieve. When you make it too easy for them, they don’t develop the skills they need to survive. They become lazy and self-indulgent, always producing the minimum because no one is holding their feet to the fire and demanding their best efforts.
There is an art to giving. Give too much and you take away a person’s reason to do his best; give him too little, and he goes through life feeling deprived, no matter how much he has. Use common sense in your giving. Know when to give and when to let someone have the satisfaction of getting it for himself.