Little by Little

 

Have you ever stopped to think about how little things add up? Or how little habits grow? The decisions you’re making today, are determining the future you.

Maybe you struggle with healthy eating habits, and you kid yourself into thinking that a coke a day won’t make a difference to your waistline. Or maybe it’s an addiction to social media, and you can’t see that a couple hours a day could affect your mental health in the long run.

Of the 1,440 minutes you have in a day, how many of them are wasted? How many are used to benefit others? How many are spent reading God’s Word or talking to him in prayer? How many are spent encouraging a friend or a stranger? How much time is spent being grateful, whether to God, or others?

Over the past few days, I have started thinking, and not just a passing thought, but really thinking long and hard about the way I use my time.

This thought process was triggered by a sermon I listened to online (which is often the case with the words and thoughts that rattle around in my brain and then flow from my fingers and onto the page). Anyway, the speaker was talking about our habits and how to set effective goals by making them too small to fail, because small things add up over time, and over time these little choices, little habits, eventually become a lot.

It got me thinking and doing a little maths to make it more real and explainable to not only myself, but I hope to you as well.

Firstly, I want to comment a little on our excuses.

Do you ever make excuses that you don’t have time to read your Bible or pray? Or maybe your excuse is that you can’t possibly read the whole Bible in a year or two years because who has time for that? Or maybe, like me, the idea of memorizing a whole passage is somewhat daunting and it seems so overwhelming, that you never begin and it never ends up happening.

Well, I want to share some good news with you.

The small choices you make today, the little decisions, the little changes you make, if done as consistently as possible, will add up. They will multiply.

There is a verse found in Zechariah 4:10 that I’ve heard thrown around a lot in relation to this subject, and although the context is a lot more involved, the first part of it does grab my attention.

Zechariah 4:10 KJV - For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

I realise that this is talking about the building of the second temple and in the eyes of many of the Jews, it was despised because it lacked the grandeur of Solomon’s temple. But I think we can also apply it to our small things.

I think that we need to remember that Satan despises and hopes to cause us to despise and make light of the little things. The little beginnings. Satan fears small things as he knows full well what God is capable of producing from these little things. He knows that God can produce greatness from baby steps. Little choices. Small habits that are headed in the right direction.

God has a way of taking our little and making a lot. He is able to multiply our meagre offerings into something amazing, and all glory should go to him.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at the story of the five loaves and two fish in the Bible. (Mark 6:37-44) Or David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17:41-49) Or the story of a little flour and a little oil (1 Kings 17:8-16). God can do great things with little.

Now, back to my maths and brain bending facts and figures.

Did you know that if you chose to exercise only 5 minutes a day, over the course of a year, you would have completed 1,825 minutes of exercise. That’s just over 30 hours of exercise in a year! And if you missed 25% of that, it would still be 22 hours! And that is only by doing 5 minutes a day!

It seems like so little, only 5 minutes a day, but that small amount, over a period of time, really does add up. And I’m sure it would be of some benefit.

What about if you decided that you would make a conscious effort to text 3 friends, once a week, just to be an encouragement. You would text a friend to let them know you were praying for them. Or possibly you’d share a verse of scripture that blessed you and you wanted to pass it on. Or maybe you could just send a friendly ‘hello and have a great day’ message.

Did you know that over a year, that would be 156 messages of encouragement you would have sent?

And when you think about it, how long does it take to send a short text? Not even 60 seconds, and yet you would have made a difference in someone’s life, just by letting them know you cared. 3 people. One message each a week, so little, yet so large an impact.

What about a topic very close to my heart these past few months? The subject of gratitude. If every day, you decided to write down 3 things, just 3 things, that you were grateful for, after one year, you would have written down 1,095 praiseworthy things. And if you missed 25% of the time, you would still have 821 things to be grateful for. Little time, great reward. (In another post, I hope to encourage you with the things I have learnt through study and personal experience, on the benefits of having a thankful heart)

Raise your hand if you find it hard to force yourself to read a book? You know, the things that are made of paper and cardboard, with print on each page that you physically turn, and bookmark and use as a paperweight?

I find it more and more difficult to sit and focus on a book when there is a phone right there, beckoning me to scroll endlessly, letting my brain jump from one thing to the next at the touch of a finger. But hear me out, it really isn’t that hard to read a whole book in a short amount of time. How do you do it? You do it in baby steps. Little by little.

If you read at an average speed, then reading 5 pages a day will take you approximately 8.5 minutes. That means, that you could read a 300-page book in just 2 months! And let’s say you got adventurous, you could read 6 books of that size, at only 8.5 minutes a day in one year! That’s not a lot of time spent reading in a 24-hour period.

I mean, how much time per day, do you spend on your phone going through your news feeds or social media? Hmm. More than 8.5 minutes, I’m guessing. So, in the scheme of things, setting aside a few minutes a day to focus on reading something other than news, could really accomplish some goals!

Now, let’s bring it down to our spiritual lives and our Christian walk. If you long to be closer to God and grow in your relationship with him, then spending time with him is a must!

We don’t grow spiritually by osmosis or some other strange process. No, we have to put in the hard work. We have to make an effort to dig into the Word of God, reading, studying, praying, learning, regularly in order to grow.

What if you spent time in prayer, each and every day? If you prayed, even for just a few minutes, every day, that’s 365 prayers you have lifted up before the Lord.

By praying daily for your husband, your children, that unsaved family member or that annoying co-worker, you will have spent hours of intercession over the course of a year. And just remember, that it’s really hard not to forgive someone, when you’ve been praying for them on a daily basis. If you’re having trouble with forgiveness or anger or bitterness towards someone, start praying for them consistently, and watch what God will do in your heart.

If you make time to spend a portion of every day with the Lord. Alone. Just you and him, communing together, learning from him, listening to him, in a year, you will have had 365 conversations with God. Whether it’s 5 minutes or an hour, and if you miss 25% of the time, that’s still over 250 times you will have spent in his presence, bathing yourself in scripture, speaking to him in prayer, learning truth from the Word.

If you don’t think that will make a difference in your life, then I dare you to try it and see!

Did you know that reading your Bible the whole way through, from start to finish, all 66 books, all 1,189 chapters, all 31,170 verses, at only 6 minutes a day, will take you 2 years to complete?

6 minutes a day. Not much is it? But it’s achievable. It’s too small to fail.

This year, I have made the decision to consistently and diligently work through a Bible reading plan to read the whole Bible in 2 years. I have started and given up many times in the past as I bit off more than I could chew. And as I like to do quite a few different things in my daily quiet time, I knew that if I could start small, by reading smaller portions each day, and make it an achievable goal, then I could, with God’s help, do it.

What if you could memorize just one verse a week? That’s 52 verses in a year! That’s the equivalent of a whole chapter or more, and all because of memorizing only one verse a week. This is also something I am working on this year, Bible memory. One verse at a time. Slowly slowly, not focusing on seeing it as a passage I’m learning, but one verse I’m learning and building on that each week.

I guess what I’m trying to say in this somewhat lengthy post, is that to make a difference in anything in your life, whether secular or spiritual, you need to start small.

Make your goals too small to fail.

If you try and take on insurmountable tasks, pursuing goals that are not achievable in the long run, then you’re just setting yourself up to fail.

But if you set yourself small goals, just a few minutes a day, just a few pages, just a small change in your habits, you’ll see progress. And that progress will spur you on to keep it up and stick with it.

Busy mother with little ones at your feet, overwhelmed wife with too much on your plate, working woman with a demanding career, single woman with a busy social life, whatever season of life you find yourself in, let me encourage you that it is possible to make a difference in your life and others by making small changes and setting achievable goals. You don’t have to take on the world in leaps and bounds. You don’t have to set unrealistic tasks.

Just take little steps. Make them so small that you are encouraged that you’ll be able to achieve it. It won’t seem so daunting and you will be excited when you are able to accomplish it. And then watch what God will do with your little. In his hands, he can make even the smallest effort multiply.

Start small.

Schedule it.

Stick with it.

God will bless your small beginnings. He will multiply your efforts.

Encourage yourself by starting small and seeing results. It’s so rewarding when you see your little efforts grow. As you cross off your list of Bible passages read, or you see your gratitude journal fill up, day by day, or those single verses you’ve memorized begin to make up a whole chapter, or your outgoing text messages of encouragement grow, or the books you’ve read start piling up, your heart is encouraged and you begin to desire more change, more growth.

Who is it you want to be in 2 years? In 5 years? In 10 years? The change starts now. The choices you make today are determining your future. What small habits are you putting in place now that will keep you grounded and growing in the future?

God has good plans for you. He wants you to seek him, pray to him, listen to him, serve him. He wants you to grow and prosper. He has an expected end for you and his thoughts towards you are good and not evil.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 KJV - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Start today. Make small choices that will impact your future. Make good choices. Wise choices. Start small and stick with it.

 

“Courage, my heart. Go on little by little, for many littles will make a great whole.”

Charles Spurgeon.