LITTLE THINGS

by Tammy Phillips
July 18, 2020

“For who hath despised the day of small things?”-Zechariah 4:10

The first day of vacation, I hit the beach early for sunrise and shelling.  I found very few shells and only two little ones that I would call spectacular.  The second day of vacation led to a 4:30 am rise.  I was still chasing the sunrise and was determined to find a bounty of shells.  So, I headed out to go shelling at one of the best places in the United States, Sanibel Island.  I had been there before in the fall, once, and it was incredible. Expectations were high.  I arrived at the beach while it was still dark.  I exited at first light to wait on dawn.  Can you imagine my surprise and disappointment, when all I saw was millions of little shells?  I decided to just sit and wait for sunrise.  After the sun lit up the sky, I opted to go to another spot-on Captiva, I found the same thing.  Little nothings.  What a bummer!

Kris was reading a book and shared ta quote from Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1874-1880:

“Life is too short to be little.”

Little seemed to be a reoccurring theme.  I chewed on this quote and actually came up with my own. 

“Life is too short to belittle.”

According to Webster’s Dictionary, belittle means to make (a person or a thing) seem small or unimportant.  In my head, I had belittled a group of teenagers who had invaded my space on the beach.  I also had belittled all those millions of shells. I has belittle my time with wrong thinking.  I spent day three adjusting my attitude.  I will not belittle anything because everything is a gift of God.

On day four, I departed out cottage with a new attitude.  I finally relaxed and began to breathe.  The water was so clear.  I began to pick up the little shells.  Then I found a perfect fighting conch shell, and another, and another.  I stopped at one patch on the beach and found all of the shells pictured above, as fast as I could pick them up.   They were little and just perfect.  God does great things with little.

For who hath despised the day of little things?  Have we?

We have a small house and we desire a larger one.
We have a miniscule bank account and we want abundance.
We are small in stature and we want to be taller.
We have a modest job and we want one of significance.
We are least in the kingdom of God and think we need to do greater.
We take small steps and we want to see giant results.

Enjoy the little things in life.  Bigger is not always better.

“In many of God’s choice workers He uses a powerful season of small things.  Those days are not a mistake nor are they punishment; they are days of priceless shaping and preparation. They are not days to despise. -David Guzik

I enCOURAGE you to not despise the days of little things nor little shells.  Belittle nothing.  Every day is a gift of God.  Every little thing is a gift from God.  Do not be looking for the next big thing and miss the little in front of you.