Do Not Despise these Small Beginnings

I wake up on the second day of this year later than intended with the cold that I began the year with and it is causing this pounding in my head and ringing in my ears.

I had set the alarm fully intending to start the new year strong with rising early, but in a groggy state shut off Fernando Ortego and rolled over beside the stow-away-son who had climbed into our bed in the middle of the night.

There are piles of laundry spilling out of suitcases and the laundry room.

My children are coughing and sniffing too.

There is not a ray of sunshine.

In fact, it is snowing.

I think back to that article I read out loud the first day of this year to friends and family about setting New Years resolutions and remember how we laughed silly. The key, they say, to resolutions is to set a tiny habit like flossing one tooth everyday.

I think about some goals that I have considered for this year and I am afraid to set them for fear of failing in them.

Maybe it is the underachiever in me, that I have lower stamina than many, that my health will realistically prevent me from accomplishing absolutely everything in a day, I don’t know, but I wonder as I look to the year ahead that I need to focus on the small.

Take the dirty clothes, for instance. Instead of seeing piles of laundry, focus on doing one load at a time. Eventually it will all get done. {The catch with laundry is it will also keep piling up.}

They say the science behind this tiny habit is it will soon turn into a full-blown daily flossing.

I look at the snow. It is falling in a romantic kind of way today. Flakes flittering down and piling one on top of another.

I get it. It is one snowflake after another that makes the snow pile up.

Each snowflake is beautiful in and of itself, but it needs to gather with the others to make a change in the landscape.

 It may seem too small an endeavor to focus on the tiny habits instead of grand goals. But, as those tiny habits pile up they will change the landscape not only in my life, but also in my home.

I need to focus on what is important.

Be committed to what is really going to make a difference this coming year 

and stay consistent at what really matters.

I know I can focus on a small habit and I know it will make an impact if I stay consistent.

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task,

but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."
Helen Keller

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."
Vincent Van Gogh

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin . . .

Zechariah 4:10

It is by His power that I will be able to accomplish anything according to the grace given to me.

I don’t need to fear failure when like Zerubbabel, who was charged with rebuilding the temple,
I simply lay brick upon brick and when the top stone is put in place it is amid shouts of
“Grace, grace to it!”


{linked with}