3 Minute Read
by Bethany Rees

When I was young, all I ever wanted to be was a wife and mother. Of course I “had” to choose a career (Ugh!") so I decided that I wanted to be a teacher when I grow up. You know, because it works around my first two adulting goals: wife and mom. 

But when I was a little girl, never did I say “When I grow up, I want to… ‘struggle with my weight’ or ‘be a person with negative self-talk’ or ‘be paralyzed by fear.” 

Yet it’s funny how when we grow up we become so many “things” we didn’t want to become. 

I do struggle with my weight. I do have negative self-talk. And I sometimes am paralyzed by fear. 

I’ve been reading The Power to Change by Craig Groeschel a senior pastor of Life.Church and in studying several of the scriptures he’s highlighted in his book, I’ve come to realize that it was all my small seemingly insignificant decisions that led to the majority of what I became when I grew up. 

For example, as a young athletic person I ate a lot of horrible foods, but played a bunch of sports. When I stopped playing organized sports as a young twenty-something, I didn’t replace the activity with exercise…but I kept up with my terrible eating habits. And now as a forty-something I’m reaping the outcomes of all of those little everyday decisions about what I ate and what I didn't do for exercise. 

I am now reaping what I had been sowing as a younger person. 

In his chapter on Sowing. Not Reaping. Groeschel says:

“What you do every day is turning you into the person you WILL become and leading into the life you WILL live.
What you do OCCASIONALLY does NOT make a difference.
What you do CONSISTENTLY makes ALL the difference.”
(emphasis added is mine)

Let me summarize that again: What you do consistently, NOT occasionally, leads you to your future. 

God has blessed me with plenty of gifts and strengths but it’s from my consistency with bad decisions in the small things (every meal and choice to watch TV over exercise) that overshadowed any good decisions I made occasionally (like that one year I ran a half marathon). 

When I read Matthew 25:29, I’ll admit that I sometimes cry out of shame and guilt. 

“To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.” ~NLT

But one of the many good things about God is that He is our deliverer.

We are never stuck in a situation…even one we created ourselves with what seemed like insignificant small decisions that led to that situation.

Through God’s power (not our own willpower), we can indeed become WHO we want to be when we grow up.

By allowing God to transform our thinking and carry us through our temptations, we CAN make better small decisions that add up to the life He has called us to live.  

So reflect on who you are and who you want to be, or where you are and where you want to be. Then analyze the small seemingly insignificant decisions you’ve been making consistently. 

Change just one for the better and you can change everything!

Know Better. Do Better. Live Better. Small Decisions Matter.

Rocks Before Sand!

Scripture: 

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

~ Galatians 6:9 ESV

Theme Song: 

When I Grow Up by NF

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References Used:

• Groeschel. Craig. The Power to Change: Mastering the Habits That Matter Most. Zondervan Books. 2023.
• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
• Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.