Quotes, Planners, and Faithfulness

I have a dry erase board in the hallway off my kitchen. I put up a grocery list sometimes but its real function is to hold the quotes that I write on it. I love a good quote. I have a whole Evernote page full of quotes. A Pinterest board full of quotes. I love them. 

And this one from Spurgeon is my quote for the year. (I just made up that "quote of the year" statement. I didn't know I had one before now.) 

"The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything." 

 Isn't that true? Right now I'm working on exercising consistently. Nothing impressive. It's 10 minutes a day but it's much better than nothing.  Keep doing a little is a great motto. My work often seems like a little. But I can keep doing it and over time it will end up being a great deal. 

I've noticed something peculiar. Whenever I've been really pondering an idea and how it affects me, our Pastor frequently ends up preaching on the subject. This past Sunday night he preached on faithfulness and diligence. You can go watch it here.  I've never announced a word for the year- mostly because I've never picked one before- but I have picked "consistent" for my word. Maybe for more than this year. Because consistency is faithfulness. 

I can't spend hours practicing piano but I can practice consistently. I can't write a book every day but i can write consistently. I can't teach Micah the periodic table of elements this week but we can do our work consistently. 

Modern Mrs. Darcy had a post up last week about her goals focusing on the effort, not the result. I LOVE that. I can't be responsible for all the results. But I can put forth the effort. I can consistently- faithfully- do the work. 

This is all a culmination of what I've actually been practicing. I bought a planner this year. I love paper. (And quotes, remember?) I've tried multiple times to keep a schedule/planner digitally and I hate it. And that means I don't do it. So do what works. Maybe you like digital. Maybe you like a scrap of paper that you throw away but I like to keep it. I've been writing down little happenings of the day too to help me remember life. 

I also love to cross things off. That's the fun part about a paper planner. But the best part is I've been writing down every day if I've done my work. If I've practiced piano. If we did preschool. If I exercised. If I did my daily writing.  It helps hold me accountable and  allows me to see an honest account of what work is being done.

This year I want to be faithful to the work God has given me. And if writing down that I've done my work helps me, then I'm going to write it down. 

What helps you be faithful? What small things are you going to keep doing so that you can do a great deal with your life?