<\/p>\n
\u201cHe who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it\u201d (1 Peter 3:10,11).<\/p>\n
MAKING BIG PROGRESS IN LIFE IS JOYFUL, BUT MAKING LITTLE PROGRESS MAY BE MORE IMPORTANT IN THE LONG RUN. Giant strides, however pleasant they may be on rare occasions, don\u2019t get the world\u2019s work done. That is done by little steps, taken daily.<\/p>\n
Aesop\u2019s fable, \u201cThe Tortoise and the Hare,\u201d is a powerful commentary on life, isn\u2019t it? In that story, the hare ran in spurts, making great progress once in a while, but the race was won by the tortoise, who wasn\u2019t capable of doing anything very big; but he kept at it, steadily taking whatever steps he could take, with the result that he outperformed his more flashy competitor.<\/p>\n
In a similar way, real progress in life doesn\u2019t usually require doing big things that make headlines in the newspaper. It consists of doing little things regularly, like those suggested by Peter: being careful about our language, turning away from evil deeds, pursuing peace, and so forth. Those are steps all of us can take.<\/p>\n
Little steps can often be more important than their size alone would indicate. Just as the Lord judges things by the level of sacrifice they require (Mark 12:41-44), I believe He also judges them by the amount of courage that is needed (Mark 15:43). When it takes courage to take even a small step, that courage transforms the step into one that looms quite large, at least in the Lord\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
Today, we may not be capable of doing all that needs to be done in our relationship with God. Nevertheless, there is some small step that we could take, and if we\u2019d just take it, that would be progress. If we did this seemingly insignificant thing, that would represent forward movement \u2014 and the devil would be defeated by just that much. As our adversary, he doesn\u2019t want us to take any<\/em> step, and when we summon the courage and love for God to do the small thing that is within our reach,<\/em> the devil is discouraged! So whatever else may happen today, let\u2019s do some small thing out of love for God. If we did even that much, that would be progress.<\/em> And making progress is what this hard life is all about.<\/p>\n \u201cCourage doesn\u2019t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, \u2018I\u2019ll try again tomorrow’\u201d (Maryanne Radmacher).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n