If the Lord rejoices in my small beginnings, I will rejoice in them, too. Because the Lord rejoices in my small beginnings, I choose to rejoice in them, too. I rejoice in my small beginnings because the Lord rejoices in them for me. And who am I to lament my small beginnings when the good Lord Himself is rejoicing in them?! “Success” I have found, really and truly is, like money accumulating in my retirement account. I understand and know deeply the profound impact of the 1% change. If I make a change just 1% every day or even three times a week, I choose to commit to make a 1% change, then, oh em gee, the benefits the outcome, the impact, is so incredibly significant!

Celebrating the 1% Change: Small Steps to Big Impact

There are 1,440 minutes in a day, so 1% of the day is 14.4 minutes. Let’s just round up and call it a smooth 15 minutes, shall we? When I began moving my body in 2017—7 years ago!!!– I began to think about working out, my dietician, who God is going to bless greatly, Jodie, had me commit to walking three times a week for 15 minutes. (Actually, she gave me a list of about 30 small behavior changes and choose 3 for a month. Wash, rinse, repeat. My first 3 were drink 60 oz of water a day, take a daily multivitamin, and my 15 min walks 3x per week.) And it felt sooo foolish. It felt like it wasn’t gonna matter. And I believed it wasn’t going to matter because what is 15 minutes, anyway? What is 1(measly)%?! What are 3 small changes gonna do??

But I did it anyway! I did it because worst case scenario she was wrong and I was gonna have bariatric surgery. (Sidenote, I was big wrong!) Best case, I figured maybe she was actually onto something because this is her job. And this is what she does. And she has apparently a track record of success, so maybe I could trust it. And so I did. So what began as a 15 minute walk three times a week– and sometimes that wasn’t one15 minute walk sometimes that was 3- 5minute walks a day. And sometimes it was a 45 minute walk and sometimes it was an hour and a half walk! But I have learned because of that, that when I when I make a commitment so small that I can achieve it, I exceed my expectations and in 3.5 months, I lost 35 pounds! I have since lost 100 pounds since my highest weight. I still move my body. I have seasons when I walk a ton (not right now though, I’m on a hiatus but as with every season, it’ll come back around again).

Transforming Life One Step at a Time: My Walking Journey to Empowerment

I got to the point where 15 minutes wasn’t enough, and it grew into an hour in sometimes even an hour and a half. And sometimes my walk breaks would be so long during lunch that I would have to stay late at work! I integrated my walks into my life. I went for a walk during the lunch break or even at the grocery store. I would just walk up and down each of the aisles making an S throughout the entire grocery store because apparently that’s how long it takes to walk up and down the aisles and also it takes me that long because I’m that slow. Deliciously slow of a walker. Don’t judge me judge your mama!

So, what began as 1% grew into exceptionally more than 1%! That 1% on some days was a major challenge. And I didn’t do 1% every day because I needed to rest. But I did 1% 3 days a week and soon enough three days a week wasn’t enough. I needed more. More of that. I got so much from walking that I wanted to walk more. I wanted to explore more. I wanted to be surrounded by the beauty of flowers and grasses and trees and sun. I wanted more. More time praying, more time asking, more time seeking.

Every time we ask, we get an answer, and every time we seek, we find. I wanted more and I got more, but I only got more because I committed to the 1%. I got more because I exercised self control. I got more because I made a decision. I made a choice. I was committed to becoming who I knew on the depths of me I could become I was committed to becoming the person that my raggedy little “friends” at the time told me that I could not be. I was committed to becoming the person they were scared of me becoming. And I became her. And I am her. And now that I’m her, I’m committed still to more. I am committed to more because life is abundant! And because God himself is abundant! Because God is love. And when I pursue love, I pursue more, I pursue abundance. I pursue.

Even though just a couple of weeks ago I was lamenting on so many of my small beginnings and not enough middles and glorious victories aka endings, I am reminded why I choose and actively for years have chosen to celebrate the small things. But sometimes I forget– oh hey humanity!– and God reminds me because he’s graceful, gentle, and all knowing. And he reminds me that the small beginnings matter and are to be rejoiced. I am reminding you that the small beginnings matter, too.

The Ripple Effect of Beginnings: How Starting Small Sparked a Revolution

And because of all of my experiences of transformation, and because I help other transform– I am many things, and one of them chiefly among them, I am a registered nurse at a residential treatment center. I have the privilege of working with courageous men, women and nonbinary folks who are detoxing and withdrawing from drugs and alcohol. And I tell them what I used to tell myself, and what I have needed to tell myself in recent days:

You cannot get to where you’re going until you are where you are. You cannot lose 100 pounds until you lose the first pound. You cannot become who you want to be unless you are right here in this moment right now. You cannot fast track any steps. You have to be who you are now to become who you want to be. Don’t you see that everything works together? Don’t you know that relapse is normal? Don’t you know that in the imperfections of your humanity, you are going to make mistakes? But those mistakes are not for you to hide, for you to live in shame. Those mistakes are for you to surrender and say, God helped me do it differently. God helped me see more. God helped me experience more. More is coming but only when I am willing to surrender to see, to know, to experience that when I rely in my own strength, I am not enough. And I do know that God, the God in me, is more than enough. I do know that the God that exists in all of us will give us the divine empowerment we need to become who we want and desire to be to fulfill our God-given vision. I know that with everything in me. Whether or not my clients believe in God, doesn’t matter. Whether I talk to them about God or not, doesn’t matter because they know God exists because they’ve met me.

My arms fall under the weight of that sentence. People know who I am because they see the light in me. We are, after all, commanded to “shine” and it is when we shine that others can see and know that there is something different, something unique, something about us. And they might not know what that something is but I trust and know that the God who created them is inviting them the same way that he’s invited me.

And whether they know it or not, they’re meeting God because they have met me. And whether they meet God in that moment is not my responsibility. That’s on God! I am not God, nor do I want to be, but I do want to be who God has created me to be. And I am becoming her. And I already am her!

I celebrate and rejoice in all of my small beginnings because it is my small beginnings 7 years ago that made me who I am today. And it is my small beginnings 40 years ago that made me who I am today. And it is small beginnings today that will make me who I am 20 years from now, and 40 years from now. So I relish in the small beginnings .I celebrate them with joy and grace and fun and ease.

A Heartfelt Prayer: Seeking Divine Guidance on the Path of Small Beginnings

I thank you God for the power of small beginnings to help me become who I am made to be. Help us all celebrate our small beginnings. Help us rejoice the same way that you rejoice in them. Sometimes we doubt. God, help us transform our doubts and our fears into prayers, petitions, requests. Help us to ask for the very thing that we need so that we can receive what we need to do what we need to do. Help us grow our faith into work. Help us grow our doubt into prayer. Help us grow. Help us mature.

God, I thank you for aging, but I don’t want to only age, God, I want to mature helped me mature exponentially more than my age would allow. You said that you would give me wisdom and all I have to do is ask. I thank you God for making us wise. I thank you that the words of my heart, the meditations of my heart would be pleasing to you and would be impactful to those who read these words. Help us to see you more. Help us experience you more.

Help us to enjoy the small beginnings of a five minute meditation. Five minutes which can seem so long and daunting and tedious. But help us to sit in the discomfort so that we can grow and mature. “Be still and know that I am God” means that I am challenged into stillness. Continue to challenge me into stillness so that I can know you more, so that we can know you more. Help us help not only ourselves but each other. As you said in your word and Galatians 6:3, “If you think you’re too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.” Help us help others so we don’t rely on our own importance and we don’t misconstrue what truly, really is important. Helping each other is what you would have us do, so help us help not only ourselves, God, but help us help each other. May this writing help others as it has helped me grow in my awareness of you.

Missed the first 2 posts in the series?

Don’t worry, I got you! This post was a bonus because I knew there was… Well… More! Click here for Small Steps, Big Faith Series, 1 of 2: Q1 Reflections- Divinity in the Smallest Starts and here for Small Steps, Big Faith Series, 2 of 2: Faith And Deeds: Manifesting Miracles In The Mundane.

Take the Leap: Embrace Your Journey of Transformation

Moved by this post and ready to carve your own path of incremental change? Become a part of a supportive community. We thrive on sharing and celebrating every milestone, no matter the size. Tell us about your strides toward growth and maturity in the comments, or if you’re looking for guidance tailored just for you, let’s connect! Book a one-on-one consultation and begin shaping your transformative journey. Every small step is a triumph in its own right—let’s acknowledge and honor that together. Ready to commit to that vital 1%? Click here to access my Free Transformation Guide—simply provide your email on my website’s popup. Or, if personal guidance is what you need, click here to schedule a free brief consultation call. Or if you prefer the socials, follow me on Instagram or connect with me on LinkedIn! Your time to flourish is now!