Proverb for the Day 13:11 — Money…Easy Come, Easy Go vs. Little by Little Makes it Grow!

Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.

This is the same kind of thing I remember hearing from my grandmother. I know a lot of guys at Helping Up Mission who have also learned this lesson – the hard way!

“Dishonest money” would be that which we have received inappropriately. But, “he who gathers money little by little” in Hebrew poetry is understood as the opposite idea. It would be sort of “get rich quick” vs. honest hard work every day.

So often with dishonest money, it’s “easy come, easy go” and it “dwindles away” rather quickly. The other money in this verses comes “little by little,” but before long “it grows” into something significant.

Many of us can give eloquent testimony that both parts of this verse are true! The message here is to be honest and upright in our dealings. Work hard and things do have a way of eventually coming together.

While interpersonal relationships are an appropriate part of how this process works, other people aren’t mentioned here at all. God isn’t mentioned, either, but I don’t think there is any doubt about an underlying confidence in God to honor our right choices in this verse.

Good, old-fashioned, honest, hard work and a little faith will always pay off!