Lessons from a Sippy Cup

So a week or two ago at Target these holiday sippy cups were $2.99. John wanted one when he saw it. So he grabs it off the shelf and was itching to give it to me. Now for any mother you know when your child brings you something with those sweet little eyes looking up at you, you sometimes can't help but to give in, and so of course I put it in the cart only until a few minutes later to pull it back out and put it back on the shelf. Of course he pitched a fit and I tried to explain to him as best as I could that we didn't really need to spend this money right now, that maybe next time we could get it, and that today we just need to just get what we came in here for and go bye bye. Needless to say I might as well of been talking to the air because he's a toddler and toddler's have their minds set...and he had his mind set on having that sippy cup and that's all he saw or heard at the moment.

Now...I know what you're probably thinking at this point, "well it's only $2.99!", and I totally get that. But, coming from a family of 4 who is living day to day off of one income at the moment and trying to be diligent about saving as much as we can to help pay off some bills this $2.99 might as well been $29.99 to me.

So a few days ago we went back to Target to grab a few needed items and came across these sippy cups again and I don't know who screamed louder...me or John because they were marked down to $.79 cents!!!! I was really excited about that because I could justify in paying under a dollar for that sippy cup, but definitely not $2.99. So I picked it up as fast as I could and gave it to John. His little eyes just lit up as he was holding on to it so tightly and wiggling happily in the cart. I smiled at his pure innocent joy over something as small as a sippy cup and thought to myself, "man...I can't believe I almost paid full price for that thing...you can't even get that at the Dollar Tree!"

Now I know that all of this may sound just a bit trivial or maybe even ridiculous to you, and I know for some $2.99 may not make or break your bank account (and in all honesty it probably wouldn't of done that to us either) because each financial situation is definitely different, but bare with me because there is a moral to this story. (Aside from the obvious,"being frugal is key, "it pays to never pay full price for anything", "good things come to those who wait", and for John's sake "patience is a virtue"), but it is in this situation I learned something very important. If God can trust us in the small things He gives...He will trust us with even greater things, (and this applies not just to money, but in many other areas of our walks.)

This my friends was a small thing, but being good stewards of our money and making wise decisions with our money is so important to God, and I feel it's never too early to teach this to our children. I pray Nick and I will always be diligent in teaching our children the value of a dollar, to always make wise financial decisions, to have good spending habits, and to be more thrifty, frugal and prudent with what God has given them. Not only will it help them to save up for things, help them to stay out of debt, and free them up financially to give to others, but if God could trust them in the small things He gives, He could trust them with even greater that they may be even more of a blessing to others!

So even though I am positive John had no clue what was going on at the moment with the sippy cuppy lesson...I nonetheless  sure did, and as much as we could teach this lesson to our children, God definitely used this as a reminder for me!


Cheer's to $.79 cent sippy cups!