Zech 4:10

10                For who hath despised the day of small things?

It’s easy to pick on a receptionist in an organization.  Typically the receptionist is the temp or the youngster in the group.  As a result, the receptionist is often the most maligned and degraded person in the entire company.  Often time even the delivery boy does not respect the receptionist.  (It’s also easy to think, “I’m just a receptionist.”)

Have you ever seen a new couple take dance lessons?  Kim and I have.  We took salsa lessons once and we did pretty well.  Watching people learn to dance though, for the first time, was in a word…UGLY.  When you are learning something new, the beginning is always ugly.

Likewise it’s easy to criticize and condemn a small ministry or church.  Especially when there are no steeples, no choirs and no crowd of hypnotized people.  When you walk into a big “program” or “show” sometimes the criticisms are drowned out by cheers of the cult.  (What is interesting is that every church started off small.)

In the book of Zechariah, God’s people were given a big mission by God himself.  As they started off, the people grew frustrated because their beginning seemed so small and insignificant.  God basically chastised them.  God said, “Are you despising your humble beginnings?  Don’t you know what I have planned for you?” (Paraphrase)

Don’t be deterred by slow starts.

Don’t be beaten down by how things look at the beginning…focus on the ending.

Don’t be dissuaded at the first step, keep stepping.

"God gives us dreams a size too big so that we can grow into them." Author Unknown