Why Small Things Really Matter

Have you ever felt small? As if who you are or the things that you're doing in your life right now, because they're unseen and maybe nobody notices, that it doesn't matter at all? Well, if that's the case, you're not the only one. And I want to talk to you about how being small is actually being great. Hi, my name is Chrystal Hurst, and I'm so glad to be able to come to you via video and via podcast. You might be watching me on YouTube or Facebook. You might be listening to me on the podcast. Either way, the content is coming at you because I want to help you. It is 2022, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity that, uh, the internet provides me to be everywhere. So we're going to try this out this year and see how it goes. If you are watching me and want to make sure that you're notified anytime and every time that a video is uploaded or that I go live, be sure that you subscribe to my YouTube channel. Or that you are following my Facebook page. And if I were you, I would do both because sometimes I do different things in different places. Hey, sometimes that's the way it needs to be. But I also am excited to talk to you today about something that has been heavy on my heart because I see so many people thinking that what they're doing doesn't really matter for the meaningfulness of their life. And I'm here to tell you that it probably does. In fact, you showing up well to the small things in life is often how you get to the big things in your life. Now, I have to tell you that I get an opportunity to work with a lot of different people. There are other girls who are on our team who work day in and day out to support me in creating the content that we create and putting out the content for the Inner Circle. Uh, by the way, if you don't know what the Inner Circle is, I'm going to throw a link up so that you can know what that is. It's where we give special content to a group of women who want to support the work we do and put in the effort to intentionally grow. But I don't do that by myself. There's a lot of work that goes into that, and there are wonderful women that help. We also have the opportunity to work with a variety of women because we every year for the last, gosh, 5 years have had an internship program. I think it's more like 6, actually. And so every year, women of different seasons, different cultures, different ages have an opportunity to apply to be a part of the team. And often, whether it's women who are ongoingly a part of our core team women who are contracting as a part of our team, women who are volunteering as interns as a part of our team. We have lots of women who are doing small things. And one of the repeating themes that I see is women who will wonder if what they're doing matters. It happens when you're young, it happens when you're old. If we have a project that we are working on and it has 2,700 pieces And there are 3 pieces that I assign to one person to get done. And they start to feel as if those 3 pieces aren't important, that it doesn't matter, that if they don't do it, no one will notice. It is those same 3 pieces not being done that will cause a break in the chain and will influence the ability of everyone else to do what they're supposed to do. I've seen it happen over and over again. There will be an intern who says, you know, I just don't know that I really have contributed anything. And I'm like, oh ma'am, you have contributed much, because if you didn't do this, then all of these other things wouldn't be possible. My mother passed away 2 years ago, and one of the things that we have seen in her absence are all the little things that she did that no one noticed. But without her doing those little things, everyone notices, because the big things that were supported by those little things either stopped happening, ceased happening, or we had to figure out how to do them a different way. And was willing to behind the scenes do small things. I think about my father, who has told the story time and time again as a minister of the Gospel, how while he was in training to minister the Gospel in school, in seminary, in Bible college, had a job working the night shift loading and unloading buses that would come in in the middle of the night. And how even in that, doing the small things, not lazing around on the job because the supervisor wasn't watching, catching naps in the middle of the night, but actually working his whole shift, something that has nothing to do at all with being a minister of the gospel supposedly, or being able to, to be a person of integrity when he's 40 and 50. He was loading and unloading buses. But the small thing there was the discipline to show up and do what you need to do when no one's watching, because God sees what you do with the small things in your life and knows that you can be trusted with the big things. Zechariah 4:10 basically tells us not to despise the day of small beginnings. Don't worry about what looks small because it creates a foundation. You are creating the foundation and the small things that you do every day. Now, the creation for what or for whom, that depends on what you're doing. Let's just say that you're a small— you're a mother of small children, and so you're at home changing diapers and mixing formula or mashing up apples so that there is something pureed to eat. Listen, a child cannot grow to be an adult if they are not properly nourished and properly kept and properly cleaned. Those are small things, that those are small things that support, that are foundational to the big things. I really believe in terms of motherhood and the role of moms who choose to be moms at home, or the moms who don't involve themselves in a lot of extracurricular things for themselves because beyond work and taking care of their families, they don't have time for anything else. And how they do the small things, making sure that food is on the table, making sure the kids' lunches are packed, making sure that they keep up with all the teachers' emails. And there are so many things that they forsake because in the season of raising children, they've decided to Show up for these small things. That is foundational. Whether you are a mom at work or a mom working from home, working at home, or working in your home, that role— foundational, small things, how you show up for those people— it changes generations. The, the lie of the enemy, the job of the enemy, the, the drive of the enemy is to convince you that whatever you're doing that seems small right now, that it doesn't matter. And here's why. Because if he can get you to believe that what you are doing small doesn't matter. What he's really interrupting is the big thing. If he can convince you that nobody sees, nobody cares, and it doesn't matter to anyone what you do, then what he's doing is creating a foundation that has fractures in it, that's not fully formed, or that's not fully present. Whatever God has called you to do in this season of your life, no matter how small, show up and do it well. You don't even have to know what the foundation of your small thing is building. You just need to know that right now this is your season to do that thing. I can tell you now, there are so many things small that I had no idea were going to add up to what I do now. Let me give you an example. In college, I majored in accounting. I've changed my major to accounting from marketing because marketing required that I take a lot of psychology classes. And after my first psychology class, I didn't, I didn't like it. I didn't like it, but I had to take a certain amount of marketing classes even for my business degree. I enjoyed accounting because it allowed me to get an answer and it was right or wrong. It was very objective and I enjoyed that, but I still had to take some marketing classes for my business degree. Now, I was in accounting for 2 years and then I'd spent some time in investment and money management, pension fund management. Basically, I was a stock picker. Okay, I helped people personally with finances. I worked at a mutual fund company. I had this whole 10-year stint in money, money management. So today I consider myself to be a business owner. I consider, consider myself to be a woman in ministry. I'm very involved in my church. I'm very involved with my dad's ministry. I'm very involved with my own ministry as well as a business of bringing encouraging content from me and other women to other people all over the world. I really believe that I'm a midwife of content because not only do I believe in creating my own content, but I have a call on my life, I believe, to help other women birth theirs, to help put them in front of an audience and get them going, to connect the woman who has the information with the woman who needs the information. And I'm doing all of these things, which means running numbers, because none of these things go unless they're supported by numbers. Money comes in, money has to go out. When I sat down with a financial advisor and we were talking about business income and we were talking about profit, and I realized that they were speaking to me not knowing that I had a background in money management. I said, hey, just so you know, I have passed the CPA exam. I have worked in accounting, I've worked in money management. And so I totally get what you're talking about. I'm tracking with you. And so I started asking some questions that made it visible. Actually, I got that wrong. Let me, let me back up and say that correctly. I was asking questions that made it clear that there was an understanding that I had they didn't know I had. And then he said, do you have a background in money or something? And I said, ah, yes, let me tell you. One of the things that having that background in money has helped me with, even in ministry and even in business, is that running the numbers, it's not stressful. It's not stressful. I'm able to make decisions on numbers and profit and expenses because I understand numbers. If I need to run a spreadsheet to work out different models of if we do it this way, what will it be? If we do it this way, will it be profitable? If we do it this way, will it make sense? I can put my stuff myself in Excel and do that. Now, I had no idea when I was in my 20s running numbers, that this would have any impact on the thing that I wanted to do that was meaningful, which I wrote in my journal in my 20s. I wanted to speak to women and encourage them in practical ways to live out their faith and to have a great impact for God. That's what I wrote in my journal in my 20s. And I thought that in my 20s, the work that I would do would be totally disconnected from my experience in my 20s. God takes everything, everything you do, everything you do and he knows how to use it. He may not tell you in advance. That's why you have to show up to every small thing in your life as if your life depends on it. And if you don't care about your life, then show up to the small things in your life as if someone else's life depends on it, because you actually do not know what God wants to do with your small things. If you are managing a home, some of the best people that I have worked with are people who know how to manage their home well. They know how to manage different people, different personalities, different processes, rhythms, routines, communication, organizing paperwork systems, taking care of interruptions. That's a good manager. And someone who knows how to manage their home is a great manager of people. Don't despise the small things. When I was working on my blog in the middle of the night, I would be holding a baby in one hand, nursing a baby on one breast, and using the other hand to type out my blog because I liked writing.. And I had no idea that later on some of those blogs would become content for a book that my dad asked me to partner with in, in, uh, in, uh, 2013. That was almost 10 years ago. I had no idea that my dream of writing a book one day, and my one day was in my 60s, that that one day would be defined by God to be in my 40s. And that in my 40s, he would use what I had written in my 20s and 30s. But I showed up for me. My small thing in those wee hours of the night was me, was showing up for my passion in small ways. My family would say, you're so geeky, and, uh, you know, you're always loving the technology. And, you know, Chrystal, they call Chrystal for anything tech, right? Computer. I am my dad's personal technology assistant, okay? I have always been like that. I remember being in college and having my first computer and trying to get something to work. You know, this is back when you had the 5.25-inch, 5.5-inch floppies. So some of y'all don't know anything about a floppy, but back in those days, you know, installing Microsoft Office on an old computer and I couldn't get it to work and I had to go to the DOS prompt to get some things to move forward. And everybody would say, she's so geeky. You know, you don't have to do that. And I tinkered with it because that was something I enjoy. So now here I am and I do need assistance. Now it is very helpful when somebody else shows up with a camera to record or brings the mics in so I don't have to worry about it and I can just focus on the content. But at the end of the day, y'all, if I have to sit here by myself by myself and get that camera to work and figure out how to plug it in and update the firmware. If I have to figure out how to raise the noise gate on my audio, which I just learned how to do that the other day. If I have to figure out how to control a switcher so that we can have multiple angles while I'm doing a video. Listen, these are things I can do. So when I have to manage other people who are coming, who haven't expertise, I actually can tell them what I want. I can actually give them input, guidance, and direction because I already know. Those were small things, me just showing up for my passion, my desires, and my interests. The small things always, always, always pay off. The small things are you showing up and being in a person of integrity despite who's watching, because God is always watching. And whatever you do in word or deed, Corinthians tells us, do it for the glory of God. Be excellent in the small things. Now I want to tell you that the small things are where the big things get going. When you want to start changing your eating habits— in fact, one of the things that we're doing in the Inner Circle right now is running a 90-day journey, and one of the optional things to do in the 90-day journey is to work on your health. I call it the Fat Demon Challenge. And whenever we start the Fat Demon Challenge, we always started with something simple, something really small. Because really the changes that you need to make for your physical body have less to do with the whopping major change you make tomorrow, and it has more to do with the small changes you make every day. And we actually jack ourselves up by trying to do the big thing too soon. Give yourself grace to do the small thing and the small thing well. We start out with water. Focus on your water. Even when we work out, focus on starting with 15 minutes or adding 15 minutes to your existing routine. Like start small and build the habit of doing things excellent and well. Because really what you want to change at the end of the day, really who you want to be in the future when that day comes, is who you learn to be consistently with small things. God says that he trusts people who do small things. He who is faithful in little can be trusted to be faithful in much. Why? Because what you do well small defines who you are. If you can show up tomorrow and do something big, like if you can tomorrow, you know, eat vegan for a whole day, well, I'm happy for you. I'm happy that you were able to do that thing. Or fast for a day, you know, water fast for a day. Or maybe you're going to avoid meat for a day, or avoid sugar for a day, or stay off of coffee for a day. That's awesome. But the changes that you want to see in your body are going to happen by you making those changes over time. And maintaining 27 changes over time is hard. So be faithful and build who you are step by step, little by little, and learn how to be trustworthy and have integrity and be faithful in the small things. Because that is what happens when you build small. You build you. You build you. And the one thing that you do small today that you can sustain becomes the building block for the next thing that you are going to do to build you. At the end of the day, here's what you're doing with your whole life: you are building you. And in the overflow of you, you build other people. If I show up and I memorize scripture every day with my children, I'm building myself and I'm building them. If I show up every day and I encourage my husband then as I build him up, the overflow of that encourages our family. If I show up and I write the sermon study guides for my church every week, nobody has to know that. But guess what I'm doing every time I do that? I'm building up my strength to write Bible studies. Nobody has to know what you're doing step by step to build you, to build into the you God created you to be, so that there's an overflow available for other people. So your diet, start small, build small, build you. Your job, do the small things well. Sometimes people are looking and you don't even know. What I can tell you for sure is that when you have the opportunity, and this is gonna— I'm saying, I'm gonna say this as specifically as I can to my Gen Zers and my millennials who are listening. If you get an opportunity and that opportunity involves grunt work, do the grunt work. I have seen, and I'm going to get on a little bit of a soapbox right quick, I have seen in my 20s and 30s, um, and I've seen this for me, and I've seen this as a person who is now older and works with 20s and 30s, there is an expectation and an assumption about what you can do. Um, and even if you know the tech, and even if you know the process, and even if you've got 3 degrees, and even if you have a skill set, There is a maturity of life and learning that you don't get when you walk into the door as a know-it-all. And I have seen this happen so much. I've talked to, uh, friends of mine who say, if I could just get them to understand that while they have a skill set I don't have, maybe because of tech or social media or video, or maybe they're creative, that there's an experience I have that they don't, and they have to be willing to do small things and watch and learn. This applies to anyone of any age, but if you are a Gen Z or a millennial, let me just encourage you, because it is the young person who is humble enough to show up and do their best and quiet enough to sit and learn is the one that when they get into their 30s and 40s and 50s, that they not only have the skill set, but they've absorbed the maturity. The pride that says, I know more than you, is the pride that actually blocks you from greatness. So show up and serve and do the grunt work and do the thing even though you think you can do it better. The sin of Satan was that he didn't want to be small. I am more glorious than all of the angels, right? The whole principle of Lucifer the angel getting tossed out of heaven is because he was not good being small. So what do you think his MO is going to be when it comes to getting you out of the line of things that God wants to do in your life? Let me whisper in her ears that she's too big for that, she's too smart for that. That's what he's going to do. He's going to entice you out of humility. So regardless of your age, be humble, and with that humility, be willing not to play small not to be small, but to do small things. Managing your money— you're not going to manage a million dollars if you can't, can't manage the $100 extra you have every month after you pay your bills. It just doesn't work that way, because being faithful in small things is a mindset. It's a mindset of being intentional about small things. My mother Chrystal Hurst, as we go through her thing, still has a drawer with all of these change purses. They are these little change purses that are cloth and they're zippered. I have no idea why she has a million of them. I'm like, it must be that something she bought allowed her to get this certain thing for free and she just would collect them over time. I don't know, you know, you go to the makeup store and then you collect all the little travel, uh, the little travel makeups or the travel perfumes. She has travel purses like these little coin purses. She has so many of them. But here's what I remember my mother carrying in that coin purse. In addition to coins, she always had cash, and she always— that was her extra cash. My mother lived with an envelope system. You may remember this from Crown Financial. Dave Ramsey, um, uh, talks about this. It's the idea that your money goes in buckets. So she would have an envelope for groceries, she would have an envelope for gas, she would have an envelope, okay, And she lived by this envelope. You want to know why she had an envelope system in her 60s? Because she had that envelope system in her 20s, and her little extra change purse was for any money left over from those categories. In my mother's 60s, when she did not have to be as budget conscious as she needed to be in her 20s, in my mother's 60s, when she did not have to worry so much about pinching pennies and cutting coupons because that was the season of life she was in, she still had a frugal mindset and didn't want to waste money. Now, my mother was gonna dress and she was gonna spend some money on her clothes. My mother was gonna have her hair done and her hair was gonna be done. But what she didn't do was allow that season of her life to take away her responsibility and her stewardship of her funds. I still remember my parents in the last 10 years, remember them writing checks to the ministries that they support every month or every year. I still remember my mother coming to church with the envelope for her tithe and offering. But what she was doing in her 60s and her ability to manage their blessing in finances in their 60s came because of their willingness to manage and pinch funds in their 20s. My dad said he was so sick of ground beef. My mother was like, that's our budget, that's what I can afford. And so she made it a million different ways. I was looking at my, um, the laundry room at my mother's house the other day. She has this broom. It is the tying together of a bunch of sticks. Because when she was growing up in Guyana, there was no broom with a handlebar that they used. They used— and I could be saying it wrong— it was like a bunch of sticks. I don't know how it's like straw, and they would bind it together, and that was the broom. And she had this broom that she would use as a little girl in her laundry room because she said, I just like using that. She wasn't buying all these Swiffers and extra mops and, you know, the, the special— the specialty vacuums and all these little extra things that I bought for my son when I put him in his college dorm just because keep it easy, keep it simple. She was like, what I used when I was growing up is still just fine. Small things. Because it wasn't about the broom or the mop, it was about her willingness to sweep the floor. I've seen my mother be so gracious to people in our church, some of the people on our maintenance staff at the— at work, some of the people that are in the back stuffing packages and in customer service because because she done all of those jobs. And you know what doing all of those jobs made her? Her willingness to do small things well, you know what that created in her? The ability to be an awesome boss. Undercover Boss. Have you ever seen that show? It's where somebody who is a head of the company, a CEO or some kind of C-level exec comes down and works in the store, works in fulfillment, works in packaging. They do the small job. Why? Because doing the small job opens up their eyes high-level executive as to how they can serve their people doing the small jobs, and to how the small job— how that small job gets done, how that matters at higher levels where they're looking at profit margins and looking at rolling out new products. And they can't do that well if they don't understand the small. That's why we loved Undercover Boss, because it allowed the person who had one vantage point to get into the shoes of a person who had another vantage point, and seeing the small thing made that boss better. Your small thing makes you better. It will make the people that work with you better. It'll make your family better. It'll make your— it'll make the people who serve with you in ministry better. It will make you better. Be willing to do the small things in every season of your life. Well, small is where it's at. If you're in school, school— I know that every topic, every subject that you take is not going to be a subject that you use every day, but how you apply yourself to that class that you may never use again. That is what matters. So in the small things, yes, study for that test, for that class you think you're never going to use again, because it's in the small habit of showing up excellently to the work of your hands— anything that you do, do it to the glory of God— it's in showing up in that small way that you are imputing, um, value into who you are becoming. So take the class and make the A's. I told my son, I said, listen, you are— you have the capacity to be an A student, so make A's. And he said, but Mom, some of these classes— I said, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about whether or not you'll use that class. I'm not talking about whether or not you're interested in it. I'm not talking about whether or not that professor is a good professor or boring or interesting or not. I'm not talking about any of those things. I'm talking about who you become when you max out your capacity. Max it out. If God has given you a capacity, then in that small area of your life, show up for who God has created you to be. Show him that you can be trusted with small things and that any and every opportunity he gives you, you will do your best to do it well. When you show up for the small things, it shows you who you can be regardless of your circumstances. Too many of us allow our circumstances to determine how we show up. That's backwards. It's not the circumstances, it's who you are in your soul and who God has allowed you to be in your soul. We all know the original Karate Kid. I'm not mad at the new Karate Kid, but I'm talking about the original Karate Kid right now. Wax on, wax off, brushing up, brushing down. Why do I have to do this? Why do I have to do this? What's the point of it? And one day he just blows and he says, I come to your house every day and you have me doing all this stuff that doesn't matter. And then he got taught a lesson. Because he was prepared for something he had no idea was coming. You want to know why you should do the small things well? Because you have no idea what's coming. The Bible says, eyes have not seen, ears have not heard what God has prepared for those who love him. I believe that many times we are missing out on what God has prepared because we refuse to show up to the thing that's in front of us. Because it's too small. Show up. Now, you know, don't, don't sweat the small things, you know. Don't go jot and tittle on me and not be able to get the important things done. What I'm saying is whatever is in front of you to do, don't skip it because it's too small. Whether it's your money, whether it's your work, whether it is your education, whether it is your season of motherhood, whether it is ministry and service at your local church, whether it is in your neighborhood, the small things matter because it's who you are and who you are becoming. I used to listen to Dr. Laura Schlesinger on the radio. I don't know if she's on the radio anymore. She was a psychologist who would talk to people. People would call in, think Dear Abby meets podcasting or radio, a sharp-witted, sharp-tongued Jewish woman who took no slack. And people would call in with a problem and she would answer their question and she would always kind of whittle down to the bare bones quickly. I guess when you've been listening to people all of your life as a part of your work, you can do that. But I'll never forget one day when she was introing her conversation, because she would always do her radio show with an intro, and she would— she said, I want to know who you are when you finish shopping at the grocery store based on what you do with your cart. She said, your cart matters. If you finish taking out your groceries and you just move the cart into the empty space next to you, what does that say for the person who needs a parking spot later or for the car that you don't realize 2 hours later that cart will roll and hit? Put the cart up, she would say. It tells me who you are. I have never forgotten that. So when we go to the grocery store, I make sure we put the cart up. I put it up, my boys put it up, 'cause I was that girl who would take the cart and pop a wheelie and make sure that the front wheels were lodged inside the curb of some kind of green in the middle of a parking lot, 'cause I didn't wanna walk it all the way to the cart collector. I didn't wanna walk it all the way to the front of the store. And I hear her voice in my head, "Put the cart up, because it tells me who you are." Small things, small great things. Every small thing that you do puts, uh, deposits, um, a note to yourself and to your God about who you are. And while we know you're not perfect, I'm not, and he knows you're not, it does deposit a note to him and to you about what you can be trusted with. And when you can be trusted with the small things, they're actually not small things at all. They are instead small great things. You want to be great? Do the small things well. You want to have money? Budget what you have right now. You want to manage 300 people in a growing business? Manage the 3 people that are under your roof right now. You want to know what it looks like for you to have the support that you need in ministry or in work? Show up and serve somebody who's— who needs your support and your service right now. Christine Kane tells the story about how she was asked when Joyce Meyer came to speak at their church's conference to serve as the chauffeur for Joyce Meyer. And she tells how she was going to be on time. She was waiting outside of the door. She was like, I'm going to show up well because I want to show up well and serve. So when she has women now who are late, who are not trust— cannot be trusted, who are not trustworthy, who are not women of integrity, she's like, no excuses. I don't care how talented you are. I don't care how well you speak. I don't care how well you can write. If you cannot show up with integrity to the small things, that tells me who you are. And I don't want to hear what you have to about God if you cannot serve well. Because what I know now is that in me serving well, God is— was training me for the role that I would have later. And I'm looking for people who are willing to serve and serve well, to be humble, to be dependable, to be communicative, to share of their best resources even when they're not receiving a check, because that's who they are. So I don't know what God is asking you to do right now that it's small. And I don't know how— and if you feel small because the things that you are needing to do right now in your life nobody sees, or maybe nobody is aware of, what I can tell you is that God is El Roi, the God who sees. And he sees every little thing you do, no matter how small. So plan the meals, budget the money, make the A on that test. Be consistent in your service. Be dependable. Show up to work on time. Finish your projects in a timely fashion. And expect greatness to be handed to you either in time or eternity. Either in time or eternity from the one who sees. And from the one, the only one that matters, that sees. Great is your reward in time or in eternity, but often based on how you show up small. Small great things, that's where it's at. If this has been encouraging to you, I'd love for you to tell me in the comments what's the small thing in your life that drives you crazy, that you don't want to do well, or that you haven't been doing well, that you, after hearing this are committed to doing a better job of showing up well for. And if this video or podcast has been encouraging to you, I would love for you to share it. Subscribe again online at YouTube or Facebook. Make sure you have subscribed to the podcast if you want to hear it by audio every week. And then make sure you leave me a comment because we look at the comments. We want to hear from you and we want to know how these episodes are helpful. This is me signing off. It's the Sister Circle. Y'all, and this was Coffee with Chrystal Hurst. We'll see you next time. Bye!