Little Things that Matter

We often measure our lives by the big moments—the milestones, the breakthroughs, the visible wins. But what if the things that truly shape our lives are much smaller and quieter than we realize?

In this episode of The Bloomer’s Journal, we reflect on the power of the little things. The habits no one sees. The quiet acts of faithfulness. The small, daily choices to show up, to try again, to do what’s in front of you well.

It’s easy to place all our focus on the monumental moments, but a meaningful life is rarely built in a single leap. It’s built brick by brick—through consistency, intention, and care in the small things.

Transcript

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Hi and welcome back to another episode. This is the Bloomers Journal, and I'm your host, Mundo Hat Baby. You ever heard the quote, Rome was not built in one day, but every day they built? Today I want to draw your attention to the little things. The small acts, the minor changes we make, the things we may take for granted, underestimate, or even give up on. These are the things when compounded creates the big. These are the things that shift life in its entirety. These are the things that matter. Let's get right into it. We're living in the times of instant gratification, wanting things now and wanting them quickly. So we don't have the patience of laying one brick at a time, the patience to build slowly, the patience to wait for results. I was in the gym working out my arms the other day, and at the end, not even actually mid-session, there I was checking to see the progress, flexing my arms in front of the mirror. I'm looking and checking for results already. This is how we've been cultured. I'm reminded of ads that used to play on the TV, well, still do. You'd be in the middle of a hot episode of generations and bam, ad break. You knew it was coming, you waited, you continued watching. Today, we don't do ads. We fast forward, we pay to skip ads on social media, we're playing videos at a fast speed, we're listening to voice notes at a fast speed. While there are advantages to these things, the point is just to highlight the era that we're in. We've been shaped and are being shaped to desire fast, easy, accelerated in all things. Well, some things are going to take time. These are the little things, but the things that are going to shape everything. So some things to note about the little things, number one is consistency. Maybe you've committed yourself to the gym, maybe to studying the word. The trick is in understanding that it does not always have to be grand or it doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be monumental. It can be small and still count. With the gym, you're not always going to have the firepower to lift those weights, and that's okay. But because you're trying to build consistency, you show up. Instead of heading to the weights, maybe you walk for 30 minutes, maybe you stretch, maybe you do just 15 minutes on the stairmaster. These are not as glorified but compounded. You see that they make a difference. Now you're not someone who only had two big days in the week. You had five days at different levels, but you came. And over time you get to build more capacity and strength. With studying the word, I used to value so much the atmosphere I create when studying. Do I have all my Bibles, my different stationery, creating almost like a picnic setting for me and God? Do I have my water, my fruit? And also do I have the hours to be able to sit and dwell? I mean, I wasn't just going to be reading, but actually studying. So do I have my laptop, my resources? The list goes on. But how realistic is it to keep this up every day? Not so practical. So what if I aimed to open the word, engaged with the word every day? Would a verse be enough? Would having one version of it be enough? Imagine just one verse you sat with and looked at closely. Imagine many of those over time. God would be able to do some work. When we aim for big all the time, we set ourselves up for failure. But small sets us up for consistency, which will always yield results. The second thing would be to do the little things well. Don't focus on the whole house. Just focus on laying that one brick well. And if you can't lay a brick, just mix the cement. Don't chase a clock, be measured and intentional. Don't be in a hurry. And I'll bring it back to our examples. With the gym, let's say you're doing burpees. Would you rather do 10 burpees with the correct form, knowing your belly touched the ground? Or would you rather chase 20 half-done burpees, cheated burpees? It's not about the more, the easy, it's about doing it well, even if it's less. It's about applying the focus. And that brings me to number three. Being present. Many of us always have our minds on the next thing, our minds on work, stresses, anxieties, yesterday, tomorrow, literally everywhere else but the present moment. If it's a 30 minute coffee with a friend, allow yourself to be fully with them. When that 30 minutes is done, you do go back to work and you're fully engaged and fully occupied with that. So why not allow yourself to be fully immersed in the moment? Whether it's a moment at church, whether it's a moment in devotion, whether it's a moment enjoying a meal with yourself, our lives are made up of these little moments. So you want to take each one and enjoy the gift of the present moment. There's a quote I love by C.S. Lewis, and he says, Isn't it funny that day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the little things make no difference. Don't discard the little ways you show up. It seems small in the moment of it, but in reality, it's what shapes your life, it's what informs your future. The things done in the quiet moments where there's no audience, there's no applause. You keep on going. It's for you, it's the life you're creating for yourself, and it's always going to be worth it. I want to leave you with a few questions to consider. One, what is something that has overwhelmed you recently that you can take another stab at? And this time in smaller bites. What is something you've seen as small, but over time have seen it play out and influence your life in a big way? And thirdly, just ask yourself how you can train yourself to hold appreciation for the small. How can you learn to value the small things even more? Sometimes we rush the process rushing for success, rushing for achievement, rushing to win. And the rewards for that are fatigue, burnout, and exhaustion, which can be discouraging. There's winning, even with a steady pace. In everything you take on, I hope you can give yourself the time and grace to put one foot in front of the other to feel steady, feel grounded, and then to keep going. It's many drops of water that make up the ocean. It's many drops of water that make up a storm. So don't downplay the little things. Don't overlook the little things because they truly do matter. Thanks for staying till the end of this episode. Do join us again next week. We are bringing back our segment with our friends of the podcast. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Join the conversation online. Do follow our page on Instagram at the BloomersJournal. Thanks and be blessed.