It IS the little things....

I LOVE my couples small group, if you're not in one I HIGHLY suggest that you join one!! (Go to cumberlandonline.org click on small groups and go from there!)   Bruce and I are truly blessed to be surrounded by 4 other couples that we get together with on a weekly basis to talk about God and do life together.  We have such unique personalities that make up our group as well and it makes for a fun and eventful time when we get together.  Right now, we're going through The Story of God by Tommy Nelson, which sparks some seriously interesting conversations at times.  Last night was one of those nights.

We approached the end of our discussion time when I brought up this interesting line from The Story of God: "Living for God means that little things count: stopping at stop signs, being completely honest on your income tax, and voluntarily limiting your legitimate freedoms to avoid conflict with someone who might be offended by such behavior."

In my opinion, we live in a society where we're encouraged to take short-cuts and cut corners when we feel pressed for time or because of a lack of convenience for ourselves.  How many times do you catch yourself cruising through the stop sign (since it was one of the examples listed) instead of coming to a complete stop like you're supposed to?  I do it daily depending on how late I am for an appointment or for picking up carpool.  Or what about obeying the speed limits either on the regular streets or the highway?  Again, I'm totally guilty depending on the situation but none-the-less, guilty.  Yet, I don't exactly feel guilty about doing these things as I'm sure many other people don't either.  But clearly I should feel convicted and as a result want to change my ways.  Why?  Because, as a Christian, I am called to obey those that are in authority over me and those are the ones that put these laws into place.  Do I have to like it? No, but I do have a responsibility to obey them.

So that was Monday morning and it's now Wednesday evening, guess what I've been doing?!  I have been putting my self to the test so to speak.  I have taken these two instances of obeying stop signs and speed limits as I've driven around Franklin over the last few days.  And the results?  It's definitely not the funnest thing I've ever done that's for sure!

If you have been stuck behind a LONG line of traffic over that last few days, you can thank me!  I have been that car that I have been trapped behind more times than I would like to count when I've been late for an appointment.  At one point, I looked in my rear view mirror to find a tail-gating police officer and 3 or 4 more cars behind that!  I was waiting for her to turn on her lights just so she could pass me!!!!  The worst ones, I have to say, were when I had a few of my friends stuck behind me.  (This happened a couple of times!  How embarrassing to be known as the "slow driver"!!!)


I have to say that my stress level went up a lot because I was worried about what the drivers behind me were thinking/yelling towards me as I slowly made my way down the street going no more than 3 miles over the speed limit at times; I did reach 7 over the speed limit as I went coasting down a hill but that's about it.  Who knows how many people were late to appointments because of my experiment!  So if a Yukon made you late this week, I totally apologize!


The idea of stopping completely at the stop signs wasn't too hard.  After all, how hard can it be to stop when you're not going that fast to begin with?! 

Will I continue to follow the speed limits and the stop signs?  I'll try as frustrating as it is at times. Will I fail?  Of course!!!!  God doesn't call me to be perfect, He just asks that I simply try my best to follow the rules that have been put in place by those that are in authority over me.  To be honest, that goes against my selfish spirit in the biggest of ways because I'm not one that likes to be told what to do.  Couple that with the fact that no one is really going to notice that I'm obeying the traffic laws and if they do it won't be with a positive sentiment!  But it's really not about that, it's just simply about obedience. 



Tommy Nelson goes on to end this paragraph that has sparked such discussion with these words: "God is honored just as much by the little things we do for Him as He is in our great proclamations about Him."  So it is the little things....and that makes a lot of the difference!