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Instant or Consistent?

 Mother Teresa reminds us to "be faithful in small things because it is them that your strength lies." Jesus told his disciples, "If you are honest in the small things, you will be honest in the big things." (Luke 16:10) Faithfulness isn't always the easiest things - consistency to always do the small things is hard, isn't it? I remember to dust the TV console because the dust is quite evident. I don't always remember to dust the picture frames - because they are smaller, out of my immediate line of sight, and easier to 'forget about'. It is like the rungs on the kitchen chairs - I can completely ignore them until one day the light reflects on them just the right way and I realize just how badly they need my attention! There are things in our lives we attempt to ignore just a bit and they could be the very things that need the biggest part of our attention right now!

What are some of the small things God is asking you to pay attention to today? Yes, I am meddling a bit here, because it is time for us to begin a new year once again and we likely will make some type of resolutions. Don't get me wrong - having a purpose is good, but most of the time our 'resolutions' are merely 'nice ideas'. We start well, peter out somewhere down the road, and forget we had any intention of keeping those 'resolutions'. Instead of us making lofty goals this year, how about each of us making an 'analysis' of the small things that need a little more of our faithfulness? Could we all look at our closest relationships today and find small ways where we could be more faithful? Let's be honest - we all could do a better job with the 'little things' - the things that actually mount up to 'big things' if we neglect them too long.

The more we look, the more we will discover. Every now and again I have to clean out my file drawers. They get messy - things not 'exactly' in the right place. You know how that happens? I get lazy. I get the stuff to the drawers, but I don't always want to file them away correctly. It is easier to just stuff them in. In the end, when I need something I should be able to find quite quickly takes me a whole lot of time and frustration to put my hands on. Something I have had to learn - small steps today make for a better foundation for the steps we will take tomorrow. Neglect doesn't happen overnight - it is progressive. The same is true for faithfulness - it isn't instant, but consistent. Just sayin!

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