Being Faithful In The Little Builds Character

I remember a time when I really wasn’t enjoying school, particularly two subjects. It seemed like I spent hours every day doing American literature, and I constantly found myself incredibly bored with what I was reading.

And then there was math. I felt like no matter how long and hard I tried, I simply could not remember a single thing I’d been taught. That, as well as my literature, took a huge chunk of time out of my day. 

Shouldn’t I be spending my time learning more important, practical skills? I would often argue in my head, Things like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of kids? Shouldn’t I be learning things that I’ll actually use, like business, marketing, writing, etc.?

Finally, one day, I decided to bring it to the Lord, since I was really struggling with despondency and a lack of motivation to work on these things that I felt were unimportant.  

He immediately showed me that I was learning more than I knew. It seemed like all I was doing was learning how to factor trinomials, simplify complex equations, or find the answers to questions when I have a negative number and a negative exponent and parenthesis in the weirdest places (It took me a long time to figure that one out!). 

But that wasn’t true. 

Because you know what? I was building character. Each time I sat down to try to decipher the strange language of math (which is still a bit of a mystery to me), I was telling myself that even though what I was doing was difficult, I wasn’t going to quit or give up, but that I’d keeping going until I figured it out. 

And each time I opened that American literature book I had to read, I was reminding my subconscious brain that it’s okay for me to do something I’m uninterested in for long periods of time. I built perseverance. 

This concept is one hundred percent all over Scripture. 

Matthew 25:21 says, “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ” This is in the context of a prudent slave who was entrusted with some of his master’s money and dealt with it in a way that satisfied his master.  

It is so important to be faithful with what we have now, and Luke 12:48 tells us why. 

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” 

You see, when we have much, much will be expected from us. But we are only entrusted with much when we prove ourselves to be faithful with the small things. 

James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” Again, we are being told that when we have much, much is required of us. 

I’m currently reading Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are by Brett & Alex Harris, and the first thing I’ve taken away from this is that in order to Do Hard Things (the first book), we need to start with doing small hard things. 

Because before anyone can be entrusted with something big, they have to prove that they are able to be trusted with something small. 

Even when the things you are doing seem monotonous and unimportant, remember this: in being responsible, reliable, and wise now, you are showing yourself, others, and—most importantly— God, that you can be trusted with big things when the right time comes. 

Just think: what big things do you think God has in store for you? 

What are your thoughts on my story + the passages of Scripture I shared? Have you read Do Hard Things or Start Here? I’d love to chat with you in the comments!