Never Despise the Small Things

Last year I bought myself a little bottle of wild yam cream. My thinking was simple: I am over 40, so let me start preparing myself for the changes that come with this season of life. I didn't have any particular hormone problem, but I thought, well... let me be proactive. At least that was the plan. And then I hardly used it. 😂 It sat there, probably wondering why I had bought it in the first place.

Fast forward to this year, and a few months ago I started using it more faithfully, and with consistency. Then I noticed something that caught my attention. My cycle, which had shifted to about 21 days back in 2017 and was not pleasant at all, seemed to have settled back into a 28-day rhythm. I was fascinated. Now, I can't say the cream caused this change because our bodies are complicated little things and there could be many reasons for it. But what I can say is that this small bottle had become part of a routine that I was finally sticking to, and I was noticing a positive change in my body. And that got me thinking about how often we overlook small things.

We want the big breakthrough. The big opportunity. The big business deal. The viral post. The dramatic transformation. We want something we can point at and say, "Look! It worked!" But sometimes change is kinda calm and quieter than that. Sometimes it is something small that you started a long time ago, almost forgot about, and then one day you look up and realize... oh, something is actually happening here.

The Bible says:

Zechariah 4:10 "Do not despise these small beginnings."* I love that verse because we are often so impatient with beginnings. We want to be at the finished product before we have even given the beginning a chance.

Think about it. A small business starts with one customer. A book starts with one sentence. A healthy lifestyle starts with one better choice. A relationship is built through small acts of love. Savings grow one little deposit at a time. A skill develops because you keep practicing, even when you feel like you are getting nowhere.

And sometimes restoration works the same way.

We start something and don't see much happening, so we stop. Then we try something else. Then another thing. Before long, we have ten unfinished beginnings and are wondering why nothing is changing.

Maybe the answer is not always that we need something new. Maybe sometimes we need to stay with what we have already started.

Consistency sounds like such a cliché, doesn't it? But clichés become clichés because there is usually some truth hiding inside them.

Some things take time.

Some things take patience.

Some things take repetition.

And some things need us to simply keep showing up.

That little bottle of cream reminded me of something much bigger: don't underestimate the small things that are quietly working in your life.

Maybe there is something you started months or even years ago that hasn't looked like much yet. Maybe you started writing. Saving. Studying. Exercising. Praying. Building your business. Learning a new skill. Posting your work. Showing up for yourself.

Don't be too quick to dismiss it because the results haven't arrived on your timetable. Keep going. And now I want to ask you: what small thing did you start a while ago that you are only now beginning to see the results of? Maybe it's time to give yourself a little credit.

You may not be where you want to be yet, but look again.

Something may already be changing.

Sometimes the little things are doing far more than we realize.

And maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't despise the small beginnings after all.

Love,

Elle