**The 100th Post**

Sometimes the smallest, seemingly insignificant things can have a big impact. I've been homesick off and on lately. It's amazing how meaningful a letter from home (I love mail! :) or an email with random details, stories, and memories are. I am repeatedly surprised how small things (like a can of soda or American snack foods) bring me happiness. Just today for lunch I enjoyed KC Masterpiece BBQ chicken and Mac'n'Cheese - Kraft, the real stuff. It was lovely AND delicious! :) I suppose, if and when I do return to life in the States, that German candy (dark chocolate, gummies, and rafaello) will have the same impact on me. But that's not the point..

A few months ago I heard someone speak to a group of lay-leaders in our church. He spoke in his own words about cultivating faithfulness in relationships and going the extra mile. He talked about the small things making a big difference. In preparation he asked his brother, married with 2 kids, for an object lesson.

I asked my sister for an object lesson for this same topic. Neither of us made it very far at first, but then she remembered a teen sharing the example of just a "tablespoon of poop" making a difference relating it to media intake. Their dad made brownies and said, 'why don't you want to eat them if poop is in there, it's only a little bit..."

I suppose that could be used in a positive way by considering the impact just a little bit of salt has in improving a great chocolate chip cookie, or a dash of sugar in tomato sauce. Or, the little packet of kool-aid into sugar water. Little thing, big difference. So, most of our examples tied back to food.

But that day, a few months ago, we weren't given chocolate chip cookies, salt, kool-aid, or sugar to remind us. We were each given a condom...and that's just a small thing that makes a big difference.


*Reminder: German culture is "a bit more" liberal than it's American counterpart. While this object lesson was a surprise to most at the table, it was neither shocking nor crude.

** a.k.a. Condom Principles