Its the little things that get ya

Do you ever get tired of making decisions? I do. Every day, decisions line up for my attention. I decide what I'm going to do, how I'll spend my money, and what I'm going to say. Conversely, I make decisions about what I am NOT going to do, spend or say.

One of the biggest challenges I face has to do with what I eat. I've battled to be at a healthy weight since I was a young kid. I went from really overweight, to dangerously underweight, and now back to overweight.

The first week on my new work out program I recorded a respectable loss of 4 pounds. The second week on the program, I lost nothing. I was shocked. It seemed I had exercised and sacrificed more that week than ever. But the scale told the truth.

The kind and butt kicking trainer tried to help me think it through. "Maybe you aren't eating enough," he said. No, that wasn't the problem. "Are you drinking enough water?" he asked. Yes; that wasn't the problem either.

Then it hit me. The problem wasn't what I was eating when I sat down for a meal, it was all the bites that led up to that meal. It was the French fry before dinner, and the bite of casserole as I put away the leftovers after dinner. It was the nibble of a double cheeseburger, and the extra scoop of dip with my carrots. No, it wasn't the big decisions that hurt my weight loss; it was all the little decisions.

Unfortunately, I had minimized in my mind the potential damage of all those little bites. Yet they added up to derail me from my goal of losing weight that week. The next week I took control of those BLTs (bites, licks, tastes and sips) and had a nice loss.

As I've pondered this reality, I've applied it to other areas of my life. I easily minimize the damage of daily unwise decisions. They aren't sin issues, so I can dismiss them as unimportant. However, when added up, they have a big impact on achieving some of my personal goals. For example, when I make a decision to not read my Bible for one day, there's no noticeable impact. But when I neglect this important part of my spiritual growth repeatedly, I find myself lacking in godly wisdom and discernment.

If you find yourself on a plateau in a certain area of your life, perhaps this truth can apply to you as well. You may be making all the right big decisions, but the little ones are having a cumulative negative impact on you.

Not only that, but I believe God desires to do amazing things through us, and is continually testing us to see if we can handle bigger responsibilities. It's in the arena of little responsibilities that our true dependability is revealed. The truth is those little decisions that seem minor, and inconsequential, really do matter. They matter to me as I pursue personal goals, and they matter to God.

My challenge is to make every decision count. I ask myself, "Is this decision going to get me closer to my goal, or further away from it?" "Is this decision going to show God I can be trusted with the little things?"

Sometimes I ask this question every hour. Which is why I ate steamed vegetables for dinner,(YUCK) and my room mate had overstuffed burritos. (Not that it's Thursday night and I'm weighing in Friday morning or anything.)

Father God, thank You for caring about every detail of my life. I know You have placed goals and dreams in my heart that will take diligence to carry out. Help me to look to You when faced with a decision, and I pray for Your wisdom as I make the right choice.