“Who uses a pencil that small?” I asked with a chuckle.
My ten year old daughter Kaiah held up what was left of the tiny wooden writing instrument (pictured above) and then let out a laugh.
Turns out, my young student had misplaced all her other pencils, again. But instead of asking me to dip back into her home-schooling supplies to fetch a No. 2 pencil for the umpteenth time, she found an old one that would suffice.
Though much of the eraser was gone and it was inches away from being completely devoured by her pencil sharpener, Kaiah found a way to make it work.
Look at how small this thing is!
After we giggled about it, though, my dutiful daughter got right back to business and turned in perfectly legible and neat work.
Had I been given the tool she used to complete her assignment, I likely would have thrown that tiny pencil away and regarded it as good for nothing. But she saw its usefulness, put it to work, and got the same great result as she would have with a new pencil seemingly better suited to the task.
I guess she taught me a lesson and it's one worth sharing for sure.
Sometimes we are so dismissive of things we view as small. We overlook, underestimate and discard them as insignificant. The trouble with that mindset is, God often chooses to accomplish great things through meager means.
And if the One who has chosen to use what we possess to accomplish His will views it as more than enough to get the job done, who are we to argue with the Omniscient One?
Too often, we behave like the 12 Israelite spies did in Numbers 13 when God told Moses to send them into Canaan to spy out the land He had already promised to give them. When they saw giants there, they became too intimidated to lay hold of what belonged to them.
In verse 33 the small-minded leaders said of Canaan, 'We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that's what they thought, too!'"
How sad.
Just like that, those divinely appointed to possess that land were ready to shy away from the opportunity because they fixated on their smallness rather than God's bigness.
To help you not to make the same mistake, I'm stirring a portion of an oft quoted passage of scripture into your cup of inspiration. It's found in 1 John 4:4b KJV and says, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."
When you drink down the contents of your cup, you will be encouraged to know that you can achieve anything God has placed you on this earth to do. But you must rid yourself of the small mentality that hinders you from using what God has placed in your heart and hand to carry out His perfect plan.
Remember this.
God has never been deterred by using what others see as small, but He can do nothing with a small mentality that hinders others from being used by Him.
Stop focusing on your perceived smallness and concentrate on God's proven greatness.
Now let's pray.
God, I thank You for choosing me to fulfill Your purpose. Today, I come against small thinking that stops me from inheriting the promises You have spoken over my life. I ask right now that You would help me to view myself through Your eyes, oh God, and be confident in Your greatness at work in me. Help me to hold fast to the truth that, as long as I have You, the Greater One, on the inside, all things are possible! In Jesus' name, Amen.
As always, thanks for reading and until next time... may today's cup of inspiration uplift, encourage, and empower you!
