From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
The late Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer who was best known for his courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, and public speaking, among other things.
He was quoted often and here’s one of his gems: “Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”
How well we do with those little tasks can also be an indicator of how well we can be trusted by others.
Look what Jesus said in Luke 16:10: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”
I have a brother who treated our Globe and Mail paper route that we had when we were in our early teens as if his life depended on it.
The paper’s motto for their delivery boys, of which my two brothers and I were three of them, was “high and dry” service.
That meant going up to each house and carefully making sure the paper was tucked securely into a mail box or between the screen door and the main door.
No throwing the paper from your bike as you drove past.
Mike did this task with painstaking care.
Today he is the vice-president of a growing, family-owned retail business where he oversees a myriad of employees, all tasked with doing the little things well.
Consider where you are in your life right now.
Are you despising those menial tasks, wishing you could be rid of them so that you can move on to bigger and better things?
Well, slow down a bit and think of Dale Carnegie’s words, and those of the Saviour.
You could be in the beginning stages right now of something bigger down the road – but you cannot take a short cut!
So, do not despise the day of small beginnings, as Zechariah 4:10 asserts.
