A four-hundred-year-old tree crashed to the forest floor. Over the centuries it had been struck by lightning fourteen times, braved great windstorms, and even defied an earthquake. In the end, however, it was killed by little beetles. Boring under the bark, they chewed away its mighty fibres until the giant of the forest lay broken on the ground (Bill Tucker with Pat Maxwell, “Living a Power- filled Life”).

There’s an old ditty that says, “It’s the little things that bother us and put us on the rack. You can sit upon a mountain, but you can’t sit on a tack!”

Little things can either make us or break us. A little lie, a little theft, a little laziness, a little neglect, a little drink a little too often, a little sarcasm, a little denial here and a little there. . .bit by bit we can add them all together and eventually hurt or destroy our relationships, our physical and/or mental health, and our walk with God.

By Dick Innes, Daily Encounter www.actsweb.org/detoday . Used by permission.