Keep Building, KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

I remember watching an interview of Will Smith (one of my favorite actors). During the interview he talked about a certain experience he had growing up before he became famous. He shared a story about how his father taught him & his brother a great lesson about life. As the story goes one summer his father told him and his brother to build a giant wall out of bricks. Him & his brother being young and small at the time both responded to this seemingly overwhelming task that they were too small & they would never be able to complete such a huge task. To this their father responded, “never say there is something you can’t do” & proceeded to give them the tools necessary to begin their summer project. Throughout that summer he & his brother worked everyday doing the tedious work of laying bricks. By the end of the summer to their surprise they had actually built the entire wall. They had accomplished what seemed to be an overwhelming task. That interview gave me encouragement at a time in my life that I was facing an overwhelming task. I want to give you the same encouragement. One great thing to take away from that story is that in the end they were able to achieve what initially seemed impossible. The deeper lesson that I want to share with you is the thing that enabled them to accomplish that task. The secret to their accomplishment was their small action of laying bricks every day.

Another story that comes to mind is the story of David & Goliath. When I 1st read the story of David & Goliath I couldn’t help but imagine how massive Goliath must have been compared to David who was a teenager at the time. Picturing the two, standing face to face in my mind’s imagination seemed to be a no brainer as to who was supposed to win that fight. However, history tells us that the key to David’s victory was not some big amazing event, but it was something very small. The key to David’s triumph was something very small that was able to knock a giant flat on his back. This story brings to light the power of how small things can overturn the big things. I believe every one of us at some point come to a place similar to this in our own lives. Life brings us face to face with an issue or a circumstance that seems impossible to overcome. I believe that often life itself is overwhelming to many people. The reason many people become overwhelmed by their situations is because they are looking at the size of the situation in comparison to themselves. They only see how small they are compared to how large the situation is. If you focus on those two dynamics you will always be mentally overwhelmed. Today I want you to begin praying that God help you change your focus.

Today I want you to stop looking at how much it’s going to take to overcome that massive issue in your life. Instead focus on the small task you can do today that will begin to break it down. As the saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. It means that some things take time. No lumberjack chops down a 50 foot tree with one swing of his ax. You have to be willing to continue swinging. The lesson I took away from Will Smith’s story was their small action of laying each brick one by one. They couldn’t focus on the entire wall they could only focus on laying each brick one by one. My encouragement for you today is that you stop focusing on building a wall and start focusing on laying your bricks.

I have discovered that many people want the wall, but nobody wants to lay the bricks. The reality is you can’t get a wall if you don’t lay the bricks. When I think of building, I think of many small things coming together to construct a big thing. The real reason why many people aren’t successful is not because they don’t want the wall, it’s because they don’t want to go through the small tedious process of laying the bricks.

Think of something you want to accomplish in your life. Think of a worth while goal in your mind that you want to achieve. Now ask yourself this question “am I willing to start building today that structure I want to see tomorrow?” Some of you reading this have already started building as I have. If you stand back and look at your work it may look like there is little to no progress, but the truth is as long as you’re laying bricks progress is being made. I want you to recognize that even the smallest amount of progress is still progress. Baby steps count too. Never get tired of laying your bricks. For those of you on this path to becoming a better you KEEP GOING! Rome wasn’t built in a day. You may not be where some people think you should be but thank God you are not where you used to be. Thank God for PROGRESS! KEEP BUILDING & MOVING FORWARD. #InspirationNation