At the end of every day of creation, the Bible says of God, “And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the nth day.” His work far from finished, the earth still in a desolated state, harboring none of the beauty that we see today, He looked around and still felt proud of the day’s work. It wasn’t all put together yet. But it was progress. It was better than the day before, a little prettier, a little closer to the final goal. A baby step. But one with which He was pleased. There was obviously more to be done, more things to put in place. But at the end of each day, the God of the universe looked around and saw what He had done hitherto; He saw the progress He had made. And even though it was neither complete nor perfect, He was pleased, at least for the moment, with what He had accomplished. And when He looked around on the 7th day, it was all there, just as he had envisioned it in His mind.
Again the Bible says of Heaven”…joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner who repents..” Thousands, billions even, still lost. Only one soul has finally come home. Yet Heaven celebrates it as though it were the whole earth that were saved. A small victory. But a victory nevertheless.
Here then lies the value of small wins, the value that God Himself, and all of Heaven, comprehends, the value that we all ought to learn to fathom. A small win. We often want everything we do to be grand and spectacular. We want our progress to happen at an impeccable pace, in huge leaps, and not tiny strides. We want everything to happen there and then. But sometimes, most times, it just doesn’t work that way. Sometimes the progress we make is excruciatingly slow and gradual. Unnoticeable if you do not look close enough. Sometimes our progress is in baby steps and tiny strides. Sometimes our wins are not grand or a spectacle at which we may marvel; they are instead miniscule; small challenges we overcome, little battles we win, little things we become better at… they are wins nonetheless. It is still progress. It’s a yard better off than we were yesterday. And all that matters. The tiny wins matter. They stack up and make the difference.
And we ought to celebrate them as such. One day, you will look back and see that you covered a mile in baby steps, that you wrote a whole story one letter at a time, that you painted a whole picture one stroke at a time. It will not always be grand and epic. In fact, it hardly ever is. It’s almost always tiny steps, tiny wins, miniscule bits of progress. Learn to take them in your stride. Take them as they come. Celebrate all those tiny wins as if they were the grandest to have ever existed, as though they were the biggest win you have ever taken. Celebrate every bit of progress as though it were the biggest step forward you had ever taken. Do not downplay nor ignore them. They all matter. They are all coming together to build up one epic finish. And even though the finish is good, it is hardly ever as enjoyable as the journey itself. So celebrate all the small victories along the way. If the God of the universe understands the value of a small win, you should too.
Your small wins matter. Okay, champ?