Baby Steps

I wish I could say that I came up with this devotional all on my own, but truthfully this is a sermon that our Pastor preached this month, and it has just caught my heart. It’s helped me so much, that I thought I would share it with all of you. Hope this helps you accomplish your dreams!
Sometimes there are so many things I want to get done that I give up before I even get started, because I feel like it’s impossible to accomplish it all. So, I’ve failed even before I’ve begun! Then comes the guilt on top of whatever consequences come from not completing these tasks. This list can range from cleaning out my closet, washing the dishes, getting my license renewed, to writing a song, writing a book, writing history! From the mundane to the extraordinary, they are all important.

If I don’t wash the dishes, they pile up. Pretty soon not only do I run out of things to eat on, the smell of rotting food makes my house smell like dirty wet socks and attracts all kinds of critters! Ew! I learned this when I had a room mate who refused to wash dishes. Needless to say, she didn’t stay very long. Then again, if we wash the dishes but neglect our heart’s desires and dreams, what do we have? Clean dishes and a broken heart.

My Pastor spoke about how we set ourselves up for failure, but setting the bar too high too fast. We want to write a book, so we commit to write a chapter a week, and end up writing nothing. We want to lose weight, so we tell ourselves that we’re going to exercise every day, eat only clear broth and crackers, and two days later we collapse. Pastor said we should set ridiculously low goals, so that we know it is something we can accomplish, and at the end of the day or the end of the week, we can feel good about ourselves.

That feeling is faith, and faith grows. It builds upon itself, and so the next week you commit to do just a bit more, and so on and so forth. For example, instead of trying to write a chapter a week, try to write a sentence. Just one. A really good one, but just one. Then the next week, write a paragraph. The next week write two paragraphs, and the fourth week, write a page. By the end of the month, you don’t have a chapter, but you probably have two pages written, and you have accomplished all of the goals you set for yourself. So instead of struggling with guilt and beating up on yourself, you feel confident enough the next week to write a page a day until one day you find that you have written your book.

The Word says “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.” (Psalms 37:23) The key word there I think is STEPS. Each step is ordered or directed by God. Not each season or each month or even each day, but each step. He breaks it down into the tiniest increment, so that we can handle it. He promised not to give us more than we could bare, and I think that sometimes when we feel overwhelmed, we just need to break it down into baby steps. After all, a baby doesn’t come out of the womb running. He has to crawl, wobble, walk and then run. It’s okay to take things a step at a time. There is wisdom in that. Don’t buy into the pressure that this world tries to put on all of us, that everything has to be done now. 

I’ve put this word into practice, and the past three weeks of my life, I’ve gotten more accomplished than in the last year. At least that’s how I feel. I feel confident that if I keep going, this year I may not have any New Year’s resolutions!

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