Trifles Make for Perfection

In striving after holiness, do not forget that trifles, the little things, count for very much.

1915 The Lutheran Pioneer

An excerpt from The Lutheran Pioneer from the April 1915 issue, Volume 37, number 5, on page 27, a monthly publication of the Synodical Conference covering home and world missions from 1879-1933. This volume can be found in the CSL Scholar archive.

A celebrated sculptor was one day visited by a friend. He had come to look at a statue on which the artist was working. He had been there several times before, but upon this particular occasion he was much surprised at the great progress the sculptor had made.

Full of astonishment he cried, "What an extraordinary change you have made in the statue since I was here last! What have you done to it?" "Oh," replied the artist, "this part I have somewhat changed, that feature I have made a little more prominent, to the lips I have given a little more expression, and this part I have polished." "But, friend," cried the visitor, "the things you claim to have done are all mere trifles; they surely could not bring about such a great change!"

"Certainly, they are trifles," said the artist, "but you want to remember that trifles go to make perfection, and perfection is no trifle."

In striving after holiness, do not forget that trifles, the little things, count for very much.