Too Much of a Good Thing

I remember a story I read as a child called "Too Much of a Good Thing". It is about a boy who had to go out every morning to bring in the newspaper. He did not like doing this, especially when it was cold, so he decided to train his dog to do it. He worked with the dog for several days and finally taught the dog to bring the newspaper to the doorstep every morning. The boy was excited that he would not have to bring in the newspaper any more! One morning, however, he opened the door to find a pile of several newspapers on the doorstep, and he looked up to see the dog running up the driveway with another one! The dog had been collecting them from the whole neighborhood!

One of the things that I have to keep reminding myself is that too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. Just as the dog was trained to bring the newspapers, we have many good things in our lives. For example, consider the ways that we spend our time. There are times for work, for recreation, for sleep, and for eating. Consider also the interpersonal skills that we use in daily life. There is a time for planning and a time for action; a time for talking and a time for listening; a time for helping and a time for being helped. All of these are necessary, but any of them done to an extreme can be very detrimental.

Personally, I have a hard time limiting the good things in life. When I identify something as being good, my tendency is to want to do it all the time. I am really trying to discipline myself to put limits on things, even good things, so that I don't end up with too much of a good thing.