Oh boy, our unbelief can cost us and others so much. Sarai (later Sarah) decided to get a child the world's way. She decided to "fix" her own childlessness. Back when she was alive, a woman who couldn't bear children was looked on as being cursed. So the practice of using another woman to get a child through her was commonly used. Sarai's idea was a world-idea, a human-idea, not God's idea. She took her problem into her own hands and royally messed up the world.
Look how her idea affected Hagar her slave-girl.
Sheron C. Patterson writes, "Sarai's lack of faith in God's promise changed Hagar's life immensely . . . Sarai shows us how someone else's lapse of faith can create situations beyond our control."
Reading this I asked myself, how have I affected others when I've worried or feared instead of believed? I know it creates insecurity in myself and my entire family. It sows seeds of unbelief into my children. It isn't a good thing.
Even distraction, getting off track just a bit can affect the people around me especially those who look to me for something.
This life isn't a game. Everything we do, think and say has consequences. Our motivation for why we do what we do is essential.
Read Jesus's words in John 6:
"'Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal . . . This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.'" John 6:27, 29