I have had “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass…” from Alma 37:6 on my mind for weeks now. I guess I adopted it as my mantra for the time being and I remind myself of it often. I tend to look at the big picture of things or focus on everything that needs to happen and it makes me feel overwhelmed. When I’m overwhelmed I avoid starting anything or putting forth any effort. Now, whenever I’m feeling that way I repeat “small and simple” in my mind as a reminder that all grand accomplishments start with one small step and are a culmination of many other small steps along the way.

This has really helped me to accomplish more than I had been. Every January one of my goals for the year is to declutter my house. I’m not a very clean or organized person and haven’t gotten very far in the last 5 years or so. I think the hard part for me is seeing all of the mess and realizing how much work it will be to clean it all up and feeling like I don’t know where to start. It is too overwhelming when I look at the whole house.

This year my goal has been to clear out and organize for 15 minutes a day and you know what? It’s working! There are often times in my day when I have a few minutes between tasks and instead of using those few minutes to do laundry like I used to, I often spend them organizing a kitchen drawer or part of a counter, etc. Yesterday it was the game shelves.

There are other areas of my life where my “small and simple” mantra is helping me too. Actually, it really helps in all areas of my life. Parenting is done in small moments, writing is done one word at a time, breaking my big goals down into small, manageable steps helps me to move forward.

Just as one weather event at a time over millions of years creates amazing beauty like the view in the picture of Canyonlands National Park above one day and one small task at a time can build an amazing life. When I lose sight of that, as I often do, I’m grateful that I can remind myself with one simple line of scripture.