Choosing God in the small stuff

We makes plans for our lives. Knights and princesses, cowboys and cowgirls, from our youngest years, we plan on doing something. We have visions, pictures in our mind's eye of what our future could be. Every day we make decisions to become that something. Yet it's not the big decisions in your life that impact you the most but the small ones.

Big decisions are easy to recognize. Will you believe in God or not, who you will marry, if, where and when you'll go to college or trade school, will you take this job or that one -- those are the ones that receive the most attention. But those decisions are not the ones that have the biggest impact on our lives.

It's the small decisions that make the biggest impact. Will you go on that date? Will you do your homework? Will you wake up when your alarm goes off so you can get to work on time? Will you say "no" because you already said "yes" to your spouse?

The decisions we make wind up making us. This is why God has much to say about how we go about making our daily decisions. Proverbs 16:9 reminds us that, "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps."

In an age of endless options it can be tremendously challenging to determine what the right decision is. We want signs and audible voices, something beyond us to clearly say, "This is the next step." God wants something simpler.

God want us to commit our works to Him (c/o Prov. 16:3). He wants us to us to honor Him with the steps we take. Every decision we make should be held up to what has He said and what boundaries has He established that should not, for our own good, be crossed.

Choosing God in the small stuff compounds to the big stuff. It's those small everyday decisions that make the greatest difference.

Sitting on the edge of a new year, what are those small decisions that you need to make that 10 years from now will make the biggest impact? What are those small decisions that compound daily to bring God the greatest glory? What are those small decisions today that will create waves into eternity?

The decisions we make wind up making us.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.