DAILY BYTEThe small things all really count.
Who we are today is the result of a life-time of past decisions and choices. Not just the big decisions and choices but the small ones as well. The ones we make everyday often without much thought behind them at all.
This truth first came home to me a few years ago. I was making a couple of visits to a retirement home, and my first appointment was with an old man who was in relatively good health. However, he spent the entire visit complaining. He moaned about the food and service in the home, the weather, and his sports teams. I felt drained and down in the dumps by the time the visit ended.
My next visit was to a pair of elderly sisters who shared a room in the same home. The younger of the two was very ill and she was cared for by her sister. Although they lived in the same retirement complex as the old man, eating the same food and breathing the same air, they could not have been more different.
The sisters, despite their suffering and frail health, were filled with a vibrant and positive faith. Love and hope shone right out of their faces. I had a wonderful visit with them and left feeling spiritually uplifted and encouraged.
Over the next few weeks I thought a lot about my two contrasting visits. It gradually occurred to me (things always occur gradually to me) that the radical differences in attitude I experienced in my two visits were actually formed long before they landed up in the retirement home. The sister’s attitude of joy and love under adversity probably began a long time ago and similarly the old man’s constant grumping likely also started many years before.
You see, we decide what kind of old people we will one day become through the course of our dailydecisions and choices!
Small reactions of negativity, if made often enough, will add up into habits. Habits kept long enough will shape and form character. Therefore, the small choices we make everyday are important because they all add up to a greater whole.
In fact, they all eventually contribute to our whole – WHO we are as a person.
As you look back over the last year try to discern a pattern of personal attitude behind the choices and decisions you have made. Try to understand them because if those choices can be called into question, you need to beware that they might add up to a dangerous greater whole for you.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord God, give me daily insight not only to decisions and choices made through the last year, but also ones that I make in the course of everyday living. Help me to make daily choices that reflect your love and personality. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Galatians 6:7-10 MSG
Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
