A Small Instruction

A Small Instruction
A Personal Story about my Dad in honor of Father’s Day
A Free Printable PDF

It was 2005. My parents had come for a visit. Sometime that weekend, I was sitting alone with my dad in the lower level of our apartment. He was sitting on a wooden chair he had just fixed for me. I thanked him, and we sat in silence for a few minutes. My father was not one to talk a lot with me. Finally, I asked him, “Daddy, do you have any words of wisdom for me?” I would ask him this question on occasion because
I wanted to get to know him more.

He stared at the carpet, thinking. Then, he said, “If you do a little bit every day, soon you will have accomplished a lot.” He seemed pleased with his advice, ending his words with his chin high. At the time I thought, “Is that all?” I thought the advice was so simple and, well, shallow. But I never forgot those words. And now, I think about them almost every day when any task seems overwhelming or too difficult.

Growing up we had huge trees in our yard. After a storm, my dad would ask me to pick up the sticks and branches fallen from the wind, cut them into short pieces, and place them in yard bags. It seemed like a huge job, but it really wasn’t – not if you just worked steadily a little bit at a time. My dad modeled this principle long before he spoke the words to me that day in 2005.

Years ago, I worked at an engineering firm that had a mammoth dead storage in a dingy basement with long rows of shelves loaded with old boxes containing files of projects dating back to the early 1900s. Since it was often helpful for the engineers to find the original project plans, I set out to catalog the files in a database for easy retrieval. Whenever I had a few minutes of downtime, I would chip away at the project. No one thought the task was surmountable, but eventually, it was finished! When the president of the company asked me if I could find an obscure file, I had the information at my fingertips!

During the building of the Temple, King David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous and act. Do not fear nor be dismayed for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.” (1 Chronicles 28:20) When the Lord directs our lives as we abide in Him each day, He gives us courage to act toward the seeming insurmountable. We don’t have to be dismayed by the size of the task. He will be with us each step of the way.

I have helped people over the years who were overwhelmed by the size of their tasks. I encourage them to “do a little bit every day.” I tell them to:

Make a list of everything that needs to be done.
Prioritize. Ask God what is most important as well as what does not need to be done.
Block your time. Give one or two hours to the most important task. Then, move to the next task. You may be amazed at what you accomplish when you focus on the block of time rather than the “insurmountable” task before you.

For a simple plan to organize paper and things, please click here to see my paper 8 Steps to Conquer Clutter.

Blessings, Beth Ann