What can we learn about ourselves from a piece of liter?

Do you sometimes read something that just sticks with you, without even trying to remember it?  A while back a book I was reading stated that, "Every time we walk past a piece of liter and pick it up, we experience a small moral victory.  Every time we walk past a piece of liter and ignore it, we experience a small moral failure."


After reading that, guess what happens when I see a piece of paper?  I think I've been doing fairly well, picking up more pieces of liter than I've ignored.   Besides helping our planet be a little cleaner, what are the benefits of doing this?

1.  Develops integrity.  Doing something good that likely no one else notices is a small exercise in character building.
2. I've found myself paying closer attention to other small details in life.  How's the saying go, "It's the little foxes that spoil the vine?" 
3. Everything in my life affects everything in my life.  We have such a tendency to compartmentalize our lives.  We say, "this is spiritual and important" or "This is non spiritual and therefore not important."   I can't imagine ignoring several pieces of trash and then walking into church and singing, "I live for you alone, every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake, I give myself to you.!"

I'm not on a crusade to clean up our planet.  However, I pray you will start noticing those little pieces of liter and recognize how your reaction affects you life.