Moment With Betty

The journey of a small beginning can be discouraging, tough, bleak, and disheartening but like it is said, every great journey begins with the little steps. 

As an individual, religious, entrepreneur or an employee, if we want to succeed in life, we must not despise the times of the early beginning, otherwise, we would be discouraged and tempted to back out.  We must always remember that little steps often lead to greater achievements.

This takes me to the story of the mustard seed and the yeast in the bible. In Matthew, 13, 31 – 33, Here, Jesus describes the mustard seed as the smallest of all the seeds but He said ‘’when it grows up, it is the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree, so that birds come and make their nests in its branches’’ Jesus also likened a small beginning to the yeast where ‘’a woman takes some yeast and mixes it with forty litres of flour until the whole batch of dough rises’’ From these readings, we see that the mustard seed usually starts as a very small  seed but grows into a big tree with time while the yeast is used as only a leavening agent which  when mixed with flour, helps the dough  to rise.

The same goes for our spiritual life and our journey to the Kingdom of heaven. We start small with little steps and gradually with prayer and the grace of the Holy Spirit, our spiritual life grows. We can practically say that whatever we do or start in life simply begins like an idea which we consume in our minds. It can an idea consumed either as a startup, an entrepreneur or a religious. The bottom line is that every idea has the tendency to expand or grow into great accomplishment.  In essence, the journey of a small beginning starts with an idea and a little step. There is always the original agent in every achievement, there are people or things that help drive the idea to growth and success. So, in the case of the mustard seed, the man who sows the mustard seeds in the field, is the agent of growth here while the woman who mixed the yeast with the flour, is the agent that made the dough to rise. It therefore means that the little efforts of these two people to their work, yielded good results. Thus, those little efforts that the Christian or religious put to work for the kingdom of God or the efforts that the start-up, entrepreneur or employee put into the business or work respectively, do not go in vain. Therefore, as Christians, we have to sow the seed of love, peace, forgiveness and kindness because one good act that we carry out can have a very big impact. Consequently, as entrepreneurs, start- ups or employee, we cannot afford to fold our hands, do nothing and expect manner to fall from heaven. We have to sow the seed of hard work, with honesty and integrity so that we can achieve growth and success. We need to start small and little by little, we move and after a while, those little efforts will grow and accrue over time into growth and success. We must always have the hunger to turn our idea into success just as the Christian should have the zeal and hunger to touch souls and achieve something positive.

We do not need many numbers to start a business or to show kindness as the case may be, all we need is to start with the little we have. Afterall, Jesus began as a travelling teacher but today the church has spread all over the world. Who could have known that a journey that began with only twelve apostles could be able to envelop the whole world. Consequently, only a simple good act you did to just one person can affect the faith of many who are witnesses to that act. Moreover, only a simple business that you started with few Naira notes can turn into a big enterprise and create employment for thousands of people. So, despite the challenges, the church will always grow besides, man has the inherent capability to grow and conquer challenges. What man needs, is to continue to make little efforts and also to pray for the grace of God to multiply those efforts. Always remember that the journey of a small beginning has a great end but this will only happen if we are patient and persevere to the end.