Celebrate the Little Victories! 🎉

Have you ever celebrated because of something you didn’t do? When you didn’t yell, didn’t make a snarky comment, or didn’t fuss at God for not answering your prayer like you wanted?  If you haven’t celebrated, maybe it’s time!

Here’s what it might look like…

It was a long day with a longer to-do list. I was chipping away at it but running out of emotional and physical steam. What I needed was a large Chick-fil-A sweet tea. As I pulled  out of the drive through into the restaurant parking lot, I heard the unmistakable flapping sound of a flat tire.

I turned into a parking space and called AAA. Then I pulled up a book on my Kindle app, unwrapped my straw, and took a sip of tea.

An hour later, Alfredo showed up to change my tire. Two hours later, I left the Chick-fil-A parking lot and headed home.

Now, this still might not sound like a very exciting story to you, but for me, it was a small victory.

Here’s what I didn’t do. I didn’t cry, fuss at God, or fall apart because the air went out of my schedule along with the air in my tire.

And that, my friend, was reason to celebrate!

My default mode would have been to do all three: cry, fuss at God, and fall apart. Then I’d go home in a bad mood for my husband to endure. But not today. So I celebrated one good response in the middle of a bad day.

Driving back home and thinking about this one small attitudinal victory, I remembered a passage in the Bible.

In 1 Samuel 14, King Saul and his men were battling the Philistines. His son, Jonathan, and his armor-bearer left 600 soldiers relaxing under a pomegranate tree and went up to face their enemies alone. The duo killed about 20 men in an area of about half an acre. Then God threw the Philistines into confusion, and they started turning on each other.

It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. But rather than celebrate the win, Saul made a rash decree: no one could eat until evening, until he had avenged himself of his enemies and had total victory.

Jonathan didn’t get the memo about the moratorium on food. As he and the army moved through the woods, he dipped his staff in a honeycomb and had a sweet treat. His eyes brightened, and he was refreshed. The other men were weak from hunger and weary from battle.

Jonathan’s dad was furious when he discovered the men had eaten, and was even willing to have his own son put to death.

That’s what can happen when we become so focused on total victory that we fail to celebrate progress along the way.

Oh, friend, too many of us are waiting until we have total victory in our lives before we celebrate. We wait for perfection, which will never come. We beat up on ourselves for our missteps and mishaps. Meanwhile, we miss dipping into the honeycomb of celebration God provides.

You’ll never have total victory this side of heaven, but you will have victories along the way.

Don’t miss them! See them! Seize them! Celebrate them!

Celebrate the times when you don’t yell at the kids. Hurray!

Celebrate the times you held your tongue instead of firing back. Praise God!

Celebrate the times when you don’t fall apart because your schedule does. Do the happy dance!

Celebrate the times when you pass on that extra bowl of ice cream. You go, girl!

Celebrate the times when you stub your toe and don’t say a curse word. Well, praise God for that!

Don’t wait for perfection to celebrate progress. Don’t miss what God is doing because you’re focused on what still needs doing. Sometimes victory isn’t changing the situation – it’s changing our response to it.

God is changing you, transforming you, and remaking you every day. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Even though you may not respond to all of life’s foibles and fallouts in a God-honoring way, don’t overlook the moments when you do. They are evidence that God is at work in you.

Small victories are still victories!

So today, dip your staff into the honeycomb and celebrate what God is doing in you.

Lord, I’m so glad You’re still working on me. Thank you for not giving up on me even when I want to give up on myself. Help me see the progress I’m making, and not just the times I still fall short. Teach me to notice and celebrate the small victories that show You are changing me day-by-day.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Leave a comment and share one recent victory, no matter how small. Let’s celebrate together!

Just for my Devotion readers
Several months ago I had a $5 sale for The 5 Dreams of Every Woman and How God Longs to Fulfill Them. Hundreds of copies sold out in 36 hours and hundreds more could not be fulfilled. But guess what! I found another box of 25 copies! So this is just for you and not going out to my entire list. Those 25 copies are back on the store page. Grab your copies quickly before they are all gone!

Digging Deeper

Do you have a difficult time detecting God is working  in your life? Do you struggle to hear that still small voice or see His fingerprints on your “everydays”?

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Don’t miss them!!! Embrace them!!! Celebrate them!!! Get your copy of A Sudden Glory: God’s Lavish Response to Your Ache for Something More and tune your heart to the sound of His song.

And just a note of thanks for those who visit my store page. That’s what makes these devotions possible.