Don't Be Cheap

Don’t Be Cheap

I am cheap (unless you ask my wife.-she thinks I spend to much on hobby equipment). For all the other things, shoes, watches, home and auto maintenance, literally any service another human being offers, I am cheap. I have a deep rooted, usually inaccurate, belief that if another person can do a thing, I can do it as well as they can. This unfounded confidence in my own ability as well as my aversion to spending fortunes for foot coverings that will be dragged through the dirt and grime, has actually led me to receive a little wisdom over the years.

1. Take good care of things that you want to keep around.

I slowly learned the value of quality footwear. I would buy a pair of sneakers at Walmart and be so frustrated that my feet and back hurt and be upset when soles and stitches were loose within weeks. My feet carry my body around every day, and in light of the fact it hasn’t been getting lighter, I have learned that I better take care of them if I want to continue to use them.

2. Sometimes you need some help

I hate not being able to do something all by myself, but as I prepared to move a gun safe, I knew I needed another person, or two. I have learned a multitude of information from Google and YouTube, but I would have never learned a little septic trick to stop my yard from flooding if I didn’t have a friend with 30+ years’ experience. There are several things that you can and should do for yourself, but there is nothing wrong with needing help. Actually my life and relationships have almost universally been enriched when I allow someone to assist me.

3. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

There have been countless examples in my life that prove this point, but I recently had to purchase and replace the brake rotors on my wife’s car. I did not maintain her brake system with enough attention and when a groove started to develop in a rotor, rather than inspect and remove the foreign object, I waited until they were no longer salvageable. I got to pay the “foolish tax” to the tune of about 10x what it would have routinely cost for this type of maintenance.

As I reflect on these lessons I learned about maintaining my health and home, they would be even better applied to my children. I want to keep them around, so out of all of the things I might neglect, it can’t be them. I rarely know all the answers when a problem arises, so when I am at a loss, it is time to call in friends and relatives to glean wisdom from their experiences. I may ignore or do the opposite of what they suggest, but its helpful to know what the options are. When it comes to the inevitable problems, rebellion, and sin that will be present in our children’s lives, it will be much better if a foundation was laid before the sin arrived. I’ve witnessed far too many parents neglect to lay a foundation of knowledge and obedience in their children, but are later bewildered when their children defect to the passing pleasures of sin. There are some areas I might be willing to be cheap, but not in the investment of those most precious to me; you don’t get a second chance at raising them.

 I love you