It’s the little things…

For the last several weeks, I keep seeing and hearing the word, “faithful.”

It began when I read this scripture in Luke at the end of November, “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities.”

As soon as I read it, I closed my bible and went to the Lord in prayer,

“Lord, help me to be faithful in the small things. The little things that may not seem like a big deal are a big deal to YOU. Help me in this, Father.”

Honestly, I did not have anything specific that I was praying for in the little things, but I wanted to be aware and recognize any area that I was not being faithful.

Sometimes, behavior can become “normal” to us after we do it for so long. We think to ourselves and even express to others, “It’s just the way I am. I cannot help it. I have always been this way and I will always be this way.”

There are certainly some areas that I need to improve on in the “little things”.

For example, my daughter was home from college and was telling me a story and I quickly jumped to conclusions and cut her off. I thought I knew where she was going in the story and I wanted to give her my unedited advice and thoughts.

She looked at me and said, “Mom, chill. Let me finish.”

We can quickly respond without knowing the full story of things and that can make a big mess.

I want to be faithful in pausing before responding. I want to pray before I say a word.

Still working on this.

Another area we can work on faithfulness is spending money. Gulp.

This can be tricky and sticky.

When we hide things from our spouse or keep bags in the car because we know we spent too much, we are not being faithful in honesty.

This never goes well, you can trust me on this.

Another area I have struggled with from time to time is over commitment. We want to say yes! We want people to know they can depend on us! We are the girls that get things done!

However, many times those commitments come with a price. Sometimes our families get the short end of the stick because we took on that commitment.

I have learned to pray before saying yes. Pause and pray.

Also, I talk a new commitment over with my husband before I decide to take it on.

There is nothing worse than saying yes to something and the immediately regretting it.

I have done this many times.

Another area of faithfulness is prayer.

Often, we are asked by others to pray over a certain situation.

If we say we will pray, let’s be faithful and pray.

Often, as soon as the person asks for prayer, I immediately go to The Lord in prayer. I know my brain is scattered and my day will have many distractions, so I pray right then and there. God hears us, not matter how quickly the prayer is lifted, it all counts and it all matters to God. He is faithful to hear. And He is faithful to answer.

We may not remember the next day to pray due to demands of work, family, commitments…but we were faithful in that moment to pray.

I can assure you that if you ask God to help you be faithful in the little things, He will show you things you never thought of.

He will gently teach, lead and guide us on this journey of faithfulness.

There will be many days that we will mess up or get discouraged. Keep asking for His help and His wisdom.

He is not asking us for perfection, just a heart of faithfulness.

it really is the little things,

jill