Make Up Your Bed
During the 2014 commencement address at the
University of Texas, Austin, Admiral William McRaven, a Navy Seal
commander challenged his to change the world.
During his speech, he gave ten suggestions, the first of which
was, every morning when you wake up, make up your bed.
He gave several reasons for this:
1) If you make up your bed in the morning, you will
have accomplished the first task of the day.
This will give you a small sense of pride and lead you to do
another task, then another and another.
Thus one small task will lead to many more accomplished tasks.
2) It will also reinforce the fact that the little
things matter.
3) If for some reason, as you go through your day
and it is miserable, when you come home you will have a made bed.
One that YOU made.
And that can give you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
Of course, in this publication we are not concerned
with anecdotes about life, UNLESS we can make Biblical application to
such. And that is what I
wish to discuss in this article: Namely, that little things do matter.
We sometimes look at life in terms of the big goals
ahead of us. And while we
need such goals, the biggest of which is to reach heaven, or as Paul
called it, “the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”
(Philippians 3:13-14), we must realize that it’s the little things that
eventually lead to the finish line.
A race, no matter how long, is run one step at a time.
How do you remove a mountain of a task? One shovel at a time.
The vast ocean is made up of drops of water and the beach is made
up of grains of sand.
Jesus described the kingdom of heaven as a mustard
seed which is “least of all the
seeds” but when grown it becomes a tree sot that birds can come and
nest in its branches (Matthew 13:31-32).
On
another occasion, He spoke of servants being faithful.
He noted, “He who is
faithful in what is least is faithful also in much.”
(Luke 16:10) In
other words, how you handle the little things in life will be a
testament to how you will handle the bigger tasks.
Jesus in Matthew 5:13 described us as the salt of
the earth. Think about how
little salt is needed to flavor food.
When it comes to our influence think about how the little things,
when done over and over, can “flavor” the world for good around us.
When we stand in judgment before God, He knows
everything. On one occasion
Jesus said, For nothing is secret
that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known
and come to light. (Luke
8:17) The point our Lord was
making is that God takes note of EVERYTHING!
On another occasion, Jesus said we will even give account for
every idle word we speak.
(Matthew 12:36) An idle word would be one that is spoken carelessly, and
in its context it was reference to something said that led others
astray. God knows WHAT we
say, and HOW we say it.
Thus we can see that little things do matter.
In fact, most of our lives as Christians is spent doing the
little things. The majority
of our time will be spent just living day by day for Him.
Not spectacular events, but little tasks that we decide to engage
in one at a time. And as we
engage in these tasks we may not notice much change, but over time when
we look back (2 Corinthians 13:5, Galatians 6:4-5) we can see the
progress we have made. We
can see major tasks we have accomplished by doing the little things one
step at a time.
So I want to remind us to keep on doing the little
things:
1.
When you wake up in the morning,
say a prayer of thanks and strength for the day.
The prayer Jesus gave as a model is short (Matthew 6:9-13).
Before a meal, take a small moment to give thanks (cf. 1 Timothy
4:4).
At night, as you go to bed, say a
prayer of thanksgiving. If you
have sin in your life, take care of it – 1 John 1:9
2.
Read a few verses of the Bible.
Psalm 1:1-3, Blessed is the one who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly…but his
delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and
night. He shall be like a
tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its
season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall
prosper.
You may only have 5 minutes as you start your day, why not take the time
to read a chapter of the Bible?
You will be surprised how much you can learn and how far you can
go, in just a couple of minutes, over time.
And who knows? Maybe you will find a verse to share with others
through texts, or on your social media.
3.
Take a few moments to memorize a
verse. Imagine how
much more you will know if you memorize 1 verse a week for a year, or 2
years, or 5 years.
4.
Say something encouraging to
someone. Be someone known for recognizing the good in others and
encouraging them. Make a
phone call of encouragement or write a note.
Hebrews 10:24 reminds us to exhort one another in order to stir
up love and good works.
5.
Take time to do the other little
things to help others. Jesus in Matthew 10:42 said, “And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in
the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means
lose his reward.”
6.
Do something to let your light
shine. Philippians
2:15 tells us to shine as lights in this world.
There are many little things we can do – invite someone to
services, leave a business card at the table with your tip, say a prayer
before eating at a restaurant, speak up for the Lord in a conversation,
let somebody know you are praying for them as they struggle (and please
do pray for them), don’t be afraid to be seen with your Bible in public,
etc. You never know
what will come of it.
Many more examples could be added to these.
The small things, though they seem meaningless, add up.
And as we noted at the beginning, sometimes taking that one step
will lead you to take the next one, and then the next one.
And before you know it, you have moved well beyond where you
began. And isn’t that
our goal as Christians?
But there is another thought to consider with
little things. How many of
us find ourselves overwhelmed because we didn’t take care of the little
things? In life, I have
noticed that a little neglect usually leads to larger problems.
You don’t fix that rattle in the car and it gets worse.
You don’t do the few dishes in the sink, and before you know it,
the pile is large. You don’t
take care of that small bill, and it balloons into a large debt.
You don’t keep your yard, and grows into an eyesore in the
neighborhood. Again,
multitudes of examples could be given.
Spiritually, the little things can add up quickly as well.
1.
You miss saying that prayer in the
morning or in the evening.
At first, it bothers you, but as time goes on, you miss more and more
prayers. Before long, you
forget to pray and are never doing it. (Consider 1 Thessalonians 5:17)
2.
You let that Bible reading today get by
you. Before you know it, you
are chapters or even books behind where you ought to be. (consider 2
Timothy 2:15)
3.
You start missing worship opportunities.
First it’s the occasional Wednesday night, then its every
Wednesday. Then Sunday night
and before you know it you have completely abandoned your brethren
(consider Hebrews 10:24-25).
4.
You start wasting your time doing one
mindless thing. After a
while, it leads to more wasteful activities.
Before long, you are wasting more time than you are using wisely
(consider Ephesians 5:15-16)
Again many more examples could be added to these.
Rarely does one fall away overnight.
It happens gradually, one little thing at a time.
Which is why Hebrews 2:1-3 warns us,
Therefore we must give the more
earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we
drift away. For if the word
spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and
disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we
neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,…
So we can see the importance of little things, both
in what we do and what we don’t do.
Let us strive to “go on to perfection” as the Hebrew writer exhorts us (Hebrews 6:1).
And how will we do that?
One step at a time.
In things of this life, as the admiral said, start
your day by making your bed.
It’s just a good way to start off the day.
Spiritually, start off your day by making your
spiritual bed, so that you are
getting started in the right direction.
And then use that day for the Lord.
This is the day the Lord has
made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
(Psalm 118:24)
Think about it.