Despise Not The Day of Small Things
Things come up that make you feel like a failure? Make your goals smaller- stick to a budget for an hour, then two hours, then three. Keep to a budget for breakfasts, add lunches, later budget suppers. Go without shopping for just this week. Then stay out of the stores (and away from online shopping) for another week., and then another two weeks... Somehow if we make the goal as long as a year, when we mess up, we say, "Oh well, we already blew it. We'll try again next year." Instead, make the goal periods smaller, so that if you do mess up, psychologically, you are ready to start again immediately. Despise not the babysteps and small successes.
If you are in a relationship, reconsider how you do date nights. I know, I know, this is anathema in our culture. But think about it- if a date night, meaning babysitters, going out, eating at a restaurant, etc, were really so vital to preserve a marriage, then what did people do in the centuries before we could hire teenaged babysitters and go out for dinner?
Ask yourselves the purpose of your date night, and then figure out how you could meet those ends for free, because you can.=)
The Headmaster and I didn't go on date nights for at least 15 years because we could not afford the sitters, and I didn't like sitters anyway. We did find time to be together alone.
My own parents are still married after 50 years, and they never went on date nights, either. They did get up before the children every single morning and have a cup of coffee together on the couch and just visit and catch up on each other's days (both parents worked fulltime).
You can put the kids to bed early, and sit up and visit, play games, make pizza together. The Headmaster and I sometimes let the kids stay up, but put ourselves to bed early. Other times we would read a book aloud together.
Think small, intimate, special, close, and frugal.=)
Apply this thinking to your charities, too.
We aren't accustomed to cherishing the small things, the little moments, the tiny gestures, the small successes, but they do add up, andIn the aftermath of any natural disaster, people want to help, and they are generally told, and told repeatedly, by the Red Cross and similar agencies= that is, the big guys- that they only want cash. It is no longer efficient or even doable for them to handle donations in kind of things like toiletries, gently used clothing, and toys for children. They are so big they work best by buying those things new in gigantic lots, warehousing them, and then delivering the same packages to everybody- but that takes time.
Meanwhile, in those same natural disasters, there are always small, private groups running hasty impromptu shelters small enough that they could use in kind donations with immediate efficiency, handing them out as fast as they came in- and in many cases, donations like this worked better for them than money. A dozen toothbrushes may be just as welcome to a small, local, private charity as a hundred dollars to a large one.
On a smaller scale, every day somebody you know is likely having to make choices- the car or the electric bill; new shoes for Joey, whose feet have grown three sizes, or the plumbing. Fix the washer or fix the fridge? There is a charity that focuses on these small things, or you can just keep your eyes and ears open close to home.
Despise not the day of small things.
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One Response to “Despise Not The Day of Small Things”
September 23rd, 2011 at 9:52 pm
I find this to be so true with many other areas of life as well! Perhaps it to be weight loss/gain, or sharing with others spiritually.
We can allow a small or large set back to defeat us! Thinking small at first, can help us to think big later on!
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