How do we get things done? Do we do it all in one big chunk? If I build a house, is there just one act involved and all of a sudden the house is built? No, of course not. That’s not the way things work. We do things one step at a time. Most of our meaningful endeavors are a series of acts strung together to accomplish an end result.
You might say, “This is obvious.” I would tend to agree. However, we can often get caught up in the enormity of a task to the degree that the task overwhelms us. It’s like that old saying, “How do you eat an elephant?” And the answer comes back, “One bite at a time.” So, we need to remember that all things of meaning take time and countless steps with consistent effort.
I think back to when I first moved to where I’m living now. I was having some financial difficulties. So, at that time I was working a full-time day job plus 2 paper routes every morning. I did this for about a year. The paper routes were seven days a week. Other than a handful of days that I took off, I had to be up by 3:30 every morning. Now, if I had known, at the beginning, that I would have to do that for a year, I could have easily been overwhelmed. I didn’t approach it that way, though. I couldn’t. I had to just approach each day as it came to me. Even, just approach each step one at a time, setting little mini-goals along the way throughout the route until the task was accomplished. Of course, this was a challenge at times, due not only to how I might feel from day to day, but also some harsh winter mornings.
Looking back now, my tendency is to wonder, “What was I thinking?” Just kidding. No, actually it was a good test of my character. It helped me learn to be committed and consistent. It was a challenge, but I learned to keep going.
This is a great lesson to be learned. Respect the process. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t put the cart in front of the horse. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Are there any colloquialisms I missed? Could be. Can’t think of anymore. My brain hurts.
Anyway, the amazing thing is, this is kind of the opposite of seeing the big picture. Here’s another saying, ‘Don’t miss the forest for the trees.’ But sometimes we need to ignore the forest so we can just focus on one tree, the tree right in front of us. While there is value at times of not getting caught in the details, we sometimes have to just focus on one detail in order to not get overwhelmed by the bigger picture. Does that make sense to you? I think it makes sense to me. But now my brain really hurts.
Fortunately this problem cialis price http://appalachianmagazine.com/category/life/faith/?filter_by=popular7 is easy to treat. The reason was detected by the doctors involved that should be strictly followed to achieve healthy sexual life. viagra side effects http://appalachianmagazine.com/category/news-headlines/page/26/ Skinny women are more prone to miscarriages buy sildenafil online and breast cancer. Additionally, fatigue felt by patients with problems of the heart http://appalachianmagazine.com/2018/01/23/vote-best-of-appalachia-awards-for-2018/ order levitra disorders, blood pressure, or diabetes then it would be better found an expert, licensed practitioner. So, how do we remember that we can’t take on too much? I think these are great times in our lives to remember how we need to trust God. I believe that’s why He only gave us one 24-hour day to deal with at a time. Matthew 6:34 says, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.” Jesus is saying here that we are not meant to worry about tomorrow. We have enough to deal with in just thinking about today. We can deal with tomorrow when it gets here. Any time we are worrying about the next day’s problems, we are taking on more than we are meant to. I’ve often found myself in this conundrum. I’m worrying so much about tomorrow that I’m not engaged in today. So, much of that is fruitless. We need to trust God for Him to show us the right step when we get there. I find it interesting that when the Israelites were fed manna from Heaven, they were instructed to not keep it until the next day. Some that tried found out that when they did it ended up spoiling anyway. This is what we’re doing when we worry about tomorrow. We’re spoiling our time, we’re spoiling our resources, and sometimes even spoiling our health. So, I need to take, as the song goes, ‘One Day at a Time’.
2 Corinthians 4:16 says, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day.” Now, here is the contrast truly described. We are all inching closer every day to the end of our time here on earth. However, our spiritual growth should still be taking place on the inside and also manifesting on the outside. We are renewed daily.
Psalms 119:105 says, “NUN. Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Now here’s a practical verse. What points our way along this path of life that we take one step at a time? It’s the Word of God. It shines a light on the path. But what does it also do? It shines the light right on my feet, or directly in front of me, so that I know what the next correct step is. I can see what obstacles are right in front of me. By it I can avoid pitfalls, and rocks, and snares that might try to trip me up. The Word points these things out to us. That’s how it shines the light on our feet.
Matthew 6:34 says, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.”
2 Corinthians 4:16 says, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day.”
Psalms 119:105 says, “NUN. Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”