“Ah LORD God! behold … there is nothing too hard for thee.” Jeremiah 32:17
Y is for yard. A yard is a unit of measure equaling 3 feet. I believe that we all already knew that. Since we know that, then we also should know that an inch is also a unit of measure and that 36 inches equal one yard.
Life is full of hard things, do you agree? Personally, I do not like hard tasks. I would much rather do a whole handful of simple tasks than to do one hard task. Did you know that you can make hard tasks more simple? What?! Yes, you can!
Have you ever found yourself staring a hard task in the face trying to work up enough gumption to tackle it? I have and I am positive that if I would ask for a show of hands, all of you would have at least one hand raised. The most effective way is to go to God with your problem or your task that seems insurmountable. He can do things that we never can!
The past couple of weeks have found a lot of children headed back to school. Many a child has been filled with dread knowing that they will have so many tasks put before them in the coming months and too many will be harder than they will want to tackle. But, thank the Lord for teachers because teachers know their students and they do not put more on them at one time than they can handle. God is our Teacher and He knows how much we can handle as well.
What is our next step in making our hard tasks more simple? By breaking them down into smaller tasks. I love to make lists … especially to-do lists. But, it can be very disheartening to find myself at the end of the day or the end of the week and I have hardly anything crossed off of my list. Ugh! Out of desperation, I have learned the trick of breaking down the big tasks into little tasks and wow, my pen gets to go crazy marking off task after task!
If you were to ask any successful Christian how they achieve so much, I honestly believe, that they would all whole-heartedly agree that it all begins with God and then making small tasks. It does not matter if they are dieting/exercising, or getting out of debt, or learning a new trade, or cleaning house, or learning to love others, or learning to tithe, or drawing closer to God, or forgiving others … “Little by little, inch by inch; by the yard it’s hard, by the inch, what a cinch!”1
There is so much truth in this song written by Ron Hamilton called, “Little by Little.” “V1: When mountains tower rugged and high, rise to the challenge, look to the sky. Trust in the Lord and start out to climb. Reach for the goal one step at a time. Chorus: Little by little, inch by inch; by the yard it’s hard, by the inch, what a cinch; Never stare up the stairs, just step up the steps; Little by little, inch by inch. V2: Growing in Christ takes work ev’ry day, Reading your Bible, learning to pray. Building godly habits, seek help divine. Great things are done one step at a time.”
Lesson Objective: To understand what yard is and how hard it is to tackle large things in our lives. To learn that we can tackle large things when we go to God for help and then break them down into small things.
Did you pass or did you fail?
1Praises III, Majesty Music, p. 90