You Can Do Hard ThingsSample

Small Tasks Hold Big Promises

Joanna hung up the phone in shock. She had been counting down the days until the trip to Romania. Now her father had called to say the trip had been cancelled. Instead of going to Romania to share the gospel, Joanna found herself stuck at home in Tennessee. With her mother experiencing serious health problems, Joanna was the one to make meals, care for the younger siblings, and clean. It wasn’t exactly the summer she had planned.

Have you ever felt like Joanna? Ready and motivated to tackle something big but stuck against your will in an endless round of chores? How do things like doing dishes and homework fit into “do hard things”?

God cares a great deal about small things, and the Bible has a lot to say about them.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus shares the Parable of the Talents. In this story, a nobleman gives each of his servants a certain amount of money (called “talents”) before leaving on a journey. When he returns, two of the servants report that they put his money to work and doubled what he’d given them. The master commends each of these servants.

But the third servant—the one who did nothing with what he had been given—got rebuked. Even what he had was lost. (See Matthew 25:14–28.) We all want to do big and important things, but we tend to discount the equally important small things that get us there. Doing hard things is how we exercise our bodies, our minds, and our faith. Small hard things are the individual repetitions—like a single push-up. They seem insignificant by themselves, but they get results over time.

Joanna told us that spending the summer taking care of her family turned out to be a great gift: “Had this never happened, I wouldn’t have learned how to cook, help my younger siblings, or take care of things around the house. I can honestly say that I’m thankful for this trial.”

The “do hard things” mentality reminds us that being faithful in the smallest things is the way to gain, maintain, and demonstrate the strength needed to accomplish something great.

Do you have a big goal for your life? Write it down. Then write out the small hard things that will help you achieve it. How will doing those small hard things now help you achieve your dream later?