I just had to share this because the simplicity of it is just so profound! A quote from the devotional "God Calling": "It is as a race. Nothing must daunt you. Do not let a difficulty conquer you. You must conquer it. My strength will be there awaiting you. Nothing is too small to be faced and overcome. To push small difficulties aside is to be preparing big troubles."
That last sentence struck me the hardest. So often it's the big challenges that I really see needing to be conquered, when in reality, they probably started with something small that I ignored. How awesome a thought is that?! I mean, I'm sure there will always be big things to confront that were big to begin with, but how much easier would things be if we knocked out the little things when they first confront us instead of letting them grow? See what I mean about profound simplicity?
I don't know about you, but I am notorious for complicating things. I have a dear brother-in-law who loves to tell me to stop thinking so much. He says I over-analyze and complicate things all the time. What IS that? Does it come from my seemingly inherent need for drama? (I've been called a drama queen more than once in my lifetime and have given birth to several of them :-/ ) Let's analyze this - if I let some small trial grow until it's more like David fighting Goliath, that's much more dramatic, isn't it? More dramatic is more fun, right? Well, not always if I were to be really honest. Actually, I think as I get older drama becomes more tiring than fun. If I really think about it, I HAVE been steering more toward simpler things these days. So, maybe I WILL confront things more while they're still small.
Something else that crosses my mind; oftentimes when a small annoyance shows up I find myself putting off confronting it simply because I have bigger things to attend to. Does that ever happen to you? I put it on the back burner and add it to the list of things to get to "later". "Later" could be later that same day or it could be a month into the future (more times than not it's at least a week or two "later"). By then it could have grown into a level 1 emergency! Hmmmm.......I think there must be a solution here I just don't see it right this moment.
Let's analyze some more. :-) I know I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, and the Holy Spirit is my Helper who recalls things to my mind. Maybe I could pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help me get to things sooner. Maybe I could make myself a note of some kind or set an alarm in my smartphone and make it act like it really is smart! That would take two seconds and probably save me a lot of time down the road - two seconds well spent. If, however, I'm not in the middle of something really important like making sure my homemade syrup that I'm making for my homemade pumpkin pancakes doesn't boil over, then I could handle it right away. By the way, making sure syrup doesn't boil over is very important. You don't want to deal with the alternative - talk about a sticky situation! Heehee!!
All kidding aside, I would really like to go through my day with more awareness of the things coming at me and an intention to deal with even the smallest of challenges right when they challenge me. I think a lot of times as a mom I'm dealing with so many different things at once that sometimes I just duck or block without even really seeing what I just avoided (put on the back burner). Does that make sense to anyone? Something else I've noticed that seems to be diminishing with age is my multi-tasking skills (that sounds like a whole article in and of itself).
I think the bottom line might be focus. Like a racer is focused on his race; his breathing, his pace, the finish line. I need to be more focused on my race. I need to see the things that come like hurdles on the race track and bound over them rather than letting them trip me up. I have God's strength to help me with that so I might as well use it. I would much rather work with God to maintain my pace and overcome obstacles than end up in a heaping mess just inches before the finish line. How sad would that be?
Heavenly Father, strengthen me to run this race you have set before me with energy and focus (and maintaining my multi-tasking skills would be really great) so that my life honors and glorifies You. I thank you for all the tools You have given me to do all that You have called me to do. In the amazing name of Jesus, Amen!
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