Taking Stock of the Small Things

Recently the company I work for relocated, moving from Hurst to Irving (TX). As part of this process we all had to pack all of our items up and prepare them for the movers. Even though I had limited area in my previous location, I was amazed at the amount of things I had. Having been with the company for over 5 years, I had accumulated more than I would have thought.

(Side note - to some people 5 years at a company may not sound like much, but these days that is actually a very long time at one place, especially in the IT industry.)

As I was going through everything I had at work and finding things I needed to keep 4 years ago but now had no need of and so discarded them, as well as packing up the items I did still need, taking special care with a few items that were either fragile or important to me, it prompted a thought - did my life have any parallels?

Are there things stuck back in a dusty corner that I no longer want in my life? Any attitudes, habits or ways of thinking that have hidden below my conscious awareness? Or are there treasured things that I have handled in a manner less than they deserve?

It is too easy to go through the daily routine without ever examining the little things. Oh sure, the big failures are impossible to ignore, but did I get a bad attitude towards a co-worker and never stop to realize that is what I did? Maybe once is no big deal, but has that once become a regular occurrence?

Attitudes and emotions are hardly ever examined until they get too big - a massive temper with a hair trigger is recognized as a bad trait that needs to be worked on, but a temper that has not reached that point is rationalized away.

But we have to be careful of the little things we allow in our lives. It is from the small things that the big things grew.

Song of Solomon 2:15 (NASB)
"Catch the foxes for us,
The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards,
While our vineyards are in blossom."