“It’s just a little”
It’s really scary how fast someone’s life can change. It’s really scary how it always starts with the little things that turn into a big thing. It’s always little things and then many things and then your life is in a different place and you look back and you say “what happened?” It reminds me of the teachings in the Bible about inviting a little sin in and you say “its only…“
But, if you keep saying that, it spirals out of control. Our Pastor told a story about this concept. I’m not sure where he got the story but I will never forget it because we have pet ducks and they require a certain diet, so I remember the feeling of sadness when he told the story. There was a farmer who had an animal and he started to feed it a little bit each day of some sawdust mixed in with the food, to save money I suppose. He started by saying “it’s just a little”, “it won’t hurt,” and the animal seemed to not even notice, so he kept doing it and doing it, and since the animal seemed to eat it and everything seemed fine, he kept adding “just a little” more sawdust in, then one day he came to the barn and his animal was dead. It became too much with all the little bit adding up. But, It’s the same for us. Doing only a little bit adds up always if you keep doing it.
Well, recently in the last 6 months, someone I know, started to change. Letting people in and letting them do a little bit and then a little bit more and then a little bit more to them and then their life changed. Their quality of life changed. This person started changing with every circumstance even though they didn’t realize the impact yet. After so much of the same type of thing. Thinking “it’s just a little bit“ type of thinking. It adds up and you’re not in a good place anymore.
Then eventually you’re forced to analyze what happened. You realize you have to pick up the pieces how you got there. Realizing maybe you started ignoring some truths you always knew and held close to your heart along the way. One thing the devil always does is start with small as well. “It’s just …” he whispers in one’s ear. “Did God really say that?” He starts with small as well, and if your not strong in the Lord and keeping close to the teachings you’ve always known, because you’ve become weaker, it will be easier for you to fall. You will let in all kind’s of “it’s just a little“ type of things in your life.
Everything and everyone you let in your life impacts you. Some big and some small, but they all impact you. Some things we don’t stop as soon as we should, we don’t speak up. We don’t deal with things we should. We let things add up until it’s a problem. We don’t see our parts that are wrong until it is too much of “it’s just a little” in any area of our life, but it’s always going to turn out bad.
After doing all the self reflection and growth checks needed in one’s life and realizing a lot and where and how things went wrong, the hardest part was in hearing the pain being told to you after you watched it play out for months. It’s hearing the pain of all the little things you knew weren’t right that were falling apart. It’s hearing how it actually was even worse than you were watching. It’s about all the “it’s just” you can never fully see in a person no matter how much you’re watching and think you see it all. There’s actually so many more “it’s only a little” going on in so many peoples lives that could one day be too much for them, not ending well at all. This is the scariest part of it all, what we don’t see, all the “it’s just a little”.
Everything we let in our life and mind is so important. It’s impacting your life way more than you think and our mental health is either getting rid of all the little “it’s just” or we’re adding them up in our mind and life.
A life falling apart or a life that’s being held together by their beat up bible that’s falling apart. We need to love ourselves more. It matters so much, our lives really do depend on it and we have to get rid of the “it’s just…”
