I am reading a book about Abraham Lincoln. It is amazing the difference between his school years and my children’s.

My children never lacked textbooks, paper, pens or pencils. But Abraham Lincoln did.

“Paper was scarce and high, so he wrote on a board with a charcoal stick – sometimes he ciphered on the flat sides of the hewn logs that formed the cabin walls. Whenever a bare surface became covered with figures and writing he shaved them off with a drawing-knife and began anew.

Too poor to buy arithmetic, he borrowed one and copied it on sheets of paper about the size of ordinary letterhead. Then he sewed them together with twine, and so had a homemade arithmetic of his own.”

“Lincoln the Unknown” by Dale Carnegie

Our children feel neglected if they do not have the latest in technology. Yet, Abraham Lincoln was desperately poor and had to make do with what he had available.

Doing without did not keep him from his destiny. To reach our full potential, we should look around and use what we have on hand.