thought of the day

Sometimes it’s harder to do the simple things than the difficult ones.

Things that are simple, easy, mundane are easier to put off or write off. We take them for granted. We’re not on the alert, not trying our best, not really thinking about them at all.....so we just don’t do them, or don’t pay enough attention to them when we do. We’re not alert or on guard when it comes to small things, but we are with big, important, difficult things. It’s easy to shrug off doing a simple worksheet for a boring class because it’s not worth the bother, it doesn’t have sweeping consequences - it’s easy to forget because it’s not big and looming. While doing a big paper is practically more difficult, we’re more likely to pay attention to it, to try harder on it, to not forget it; so it gets done, when the little worksheets don’t. So in a way....it’s easier to do the hard thing, than the easy one because fighting our laziness or inattentiveness is harder than doing the hard thing.

I was thinking about this not so much in regard to school (that was just an example), but life in general. It’s easy to spend a lot of money on a bunch of little things because we buy them without even thinking about them, but hard to spend the same ammount on one large thing because we see it as a big deal and take more time to consider it’s worth and look at our accounts. It’s easier to not do simple favors for other people all day, like opening a door, or giving them a random encouragement, or paying attention to what they’re doing and getting out of the way for them, or remembering to do a simple request like closing the door again on your way out, while it’s dificult to not stop everything and comfort someone who’s just heard that someone they love has died. Dropping everything and sitting with them is more inconveinent, or takes more effort than those other things, but it’s not easily put off. It’s easy to forget to thank God for little blessings like getting green lights all the way to work, or the cofee shop not being out of your favorite pastry, or finding the pen you misplaced, when we would never forget to spend a long time praying and thanking Him and praising Him to others for healing someone of cancer or a missions trip going really well.

Perhaps we need to be a little more intentional toward the small things. While they don’t of themselves have grand effects, there are a lot more of them than the ‘big’ things, and they do add up. All those little things can set the tone for a class, a relationship, or your very life.

Of course this is a lot easier contemplated than practiced. sigh.....