What Will You Give Me?

Yesterday's visit to George Fox University became today's game of FARMER, FARMER, LET ME DOWN.

I don't know if you're familiar with this game as teeter-totters are rarely found on today's playgrounds, but in this familiar game of yesteryears, a child sat on either side of the teeter totter. One would shift on the seat, to bear their whole weight, raising the peer to the skies, and render them powerless to return to the ground. The hanging child would then state, "Farmer, Farmer, Let me down."

The captor would then ask, "What will you give me?" The child, still dangling in the air, would then start naming off trade, and when something is heard the captor likes, he/ she changes position and pushes off to transfer power and it is his/ her turn to give up a made up something for self benefit.

Not everything in life is easily obtained. Sometimes we have to make a choice, trading something we want, for something we want more.

In high school we trade the popularity of being part of the partying in crowd, for the peace of knowing we're in the right crowd. We trade social niceties of theatre tickets and new clothes for four wheels and a back seat for friends. We trade free time to hang out, for time cards in employment toward a higher education.

What will you give me? Yesterdays campus visit was eye opening in costs, and I'm faced with a decision as it is more than I'd thought to be fair and make up the difference in what I told my husband, and in what I learned. Have you ever heard the parable of the bicycle?

In a nutshell--a child tells her father "I want a bike." Dad says, "Then save all your pennies."

The determined girl is saving and dad sees how true she is and realizes by the time she has enough for that bike--she'll want a car.

So dad tells the girl to bring her piggy bank. They go to the store and she chooses a bike. She is sad when she sees the amount that rings up on the register. "I don't have enough," she says. To which Dad replies, "You give all you have, and I'll do the rest." That little girl dumps her bank while coins roll on the belt, and clerk counts all her pennies, dimes, and nickels. She proudly rides that bike all the way home, with Dad beaming behind.

This story is used to show how the atonement works, but, I see a new message in self reliance and planning that I think makes the blessing of any one thing, worked for, that much more beautiful.

Sacrifice in any form is an investment in good works, good hearts, and good transformation.

Sacrifice is not a price, but a gift to others or oneself.

My Knowledge project just taught me a valuable truth as I continue with Choice and Accountability #1 in making wise decisions.