Every day of our lives, we choose how to use our time. Some choices are very intentional, and others are not. Some moments we feel must be significant, and others are just ordinary. We have habits and routines, and year by year, the pages of our lives turn past.

At times, you may wonder if what you are doing matters and whether your are in God’s will, but don’t ever stop moving. Don’t let the questions and the times you feel you lack direction discourage you and bring you to a halt. My husband has this saying, that “God steers moving ships.” It’s true. God doesn’t usually give us step by step directions for our days, or even for our lives, though sometimes He does give us glimpses. Yet, he steers when we get ourselves in gear, often in ways we just don’t understand.

God promises that He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. We tend to cling to that promise in difficulty, but if we look at ordinary days through the lens that claims God is working THIS for good, what kind of change might we expect to experience in our attitude toward just about everything?

What I do with my moments today matters.

God will make something of it.

My choices today will have an impact on myself and others in the future.

Last month, our family visited a church where my husband filled in for the pastor who was out of the country on a missions trip to encourage Covid weary pastors in South America. Their worship leader was also gone and we were asked to lead their music as well, and so we did. At the same time, our daughter Lilly was on the worship team at our home church, and our married daughter was playing keyboard for her church in the cities.

It was an overwhelming moment when I was struck by the reality that my children were leading worship at three different churches across the state of Minnesota. I remembered all of the years of training them to sing, the teachers who have invested in them because they saw potential, cleaning house to barter for piano lessons, pushing them to practice, making them sing out in years that their shyness wanted to rule, traveling from church to church to share and bless… and so many other moments that were part of giving them experience and earning home-school music credits, all the while asking God, “What now?”

God used our moments to train up worship leaders, but honestly, my husband and I were not sure what we were doing. We were just putting one foot in front of the other, teaching our kids what we sensed the Lord wanted, not knowing if music would just be a childhood hobby. Instead, “raising a Hallelujah” has become a way of life, and something that brings our grown children great joy and purpose, desiring to help others praise.

When we are faithful to follow God’s lead, day by day, He is weaving together a big picture that is beautifully deliberate. We partner with God for everything, and He works it ALL for our good. It is our choices in the ordinary moments that build a platform for the spotlight moments. The way we choose to spend our time, modeling a relationship with God, loving and serving others, developing our talents, using our gifts and resources in ways that honor the God who provides them are all building something that we can’t see until it is in front of us: A legacy that testifies to the goodness of God who makes miracles in the midst of the mundane.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 tells us,

 a time to be born, and a time to die;

 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
 a time to love, and a time to hate;

⁹ What gain has the worker from his toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹² I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; ¹³ also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.”

Pursue God and seek to please Him from a heart of love for Him. That is His will.

And then, when the days are long and seem to overlap, and when you aren’t sure what you are doing makes a difference, keep faith. Make deliberate choices. Enjoy the ordinary moments. God really is working a miracle, even if you can’t see it yet. Someday, you will.

Images by Kira Hoffmann, GS S, Jackson David, Сергей Ремизов, LwcyD from Pixabay