Sometimes, when we try to measure our progress, we can miss how far we’ve come along the path of our journey because baby steps are harder to measure. And yet, they are the true measurement of our resilience and commitment in the face of difficult journeys. As we moved into the New Year in January, I decided to collect several scriptures to help guide me through the year, to help me maintain my focus on where I wanted to head and how I wanted to get there. One of the scripture verses that caught my attention and that I wrote into my bullet journal came from Zechariah 4:10:
Do not despise these small beginnings,
for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
Because these verses are written in the first pages of my 2025 journal, I tend to glance over them occasionally, more often than if I hadn’t written them down. Today, I am grateful they are there for me to read and to remind me of what matters. Today, I am grateful for the reminder of the importance of small beginnings, and, even more, I love the idea that God is celebrating when we begin the work we intend to begin and make even small progress, or baby steps.
With that in mind, today I am also acknowledging the baby steps my teenagers are making in some of the more challenging parts of their lives. Let’s face it, we all have things in our lives that require us to work at them again, and again, and again, before we begin to see any real difference in that particular area. To me, that is part of the small beginnings and effort God celebrates as we do the hard work of overcoming what challenges us. For my 14 year old, that is her anxiety. She has made progress, but sometimes I lose sight of that. But today, as I took a moment to breathe, as I took a moment to pause my own anxious thoughts, I heard God’s whisper in those words I wrote in my 2025 bullet journal: do not despise these small beginnings. And it was more than just the idea of small beginnings; it was about recognizing, even celebrating baby steps—mine and theirs.
Today, I watched my younger teenager fight her anxiety and actually prevail. At first, it didn’t look or even seem like she was winning, but I know now she was. Indeed, she was. She knew what to ask for and she did. She knew what she needed, and she advocated for that. And when she wanted to give in, she didn’t. Instead, she allowed me to push her beyond her comfort zone and was able to admit it helped. That’s what baby steps look like for us in this ongoing journey wherein she is navigating her way through the ways anxiety shows up and throws obstacles onto her path.
Similarly, I witnessed my older teenager making her own small beginnings of progress, not with anxiety, but with how she sees herself. I don’t know about you, but it can be so easy to be so hard on ourselves. To berate ourselves and to beat ourselves up, accusing ourselves over things we believe we should be able to do or things we believe everyone else can do. I tell my girls often, this way of thinking is not only unhelpful, but hurtful. It’s a trap that leads us into the downward spiral of shame. But today, I saw my older girl battle her way through some harsh language directed at herself to find a better place, a point where she could get a better perspective of herself and the circumstances upending her emotions.
Today was a good reminder of what progress can look like sometimes. Sure, we have bigger moments we get to celebrate in other areas, but I do not want to lose sight of these smaller but still significant steps along the paths each of us is traveling. Not only am I grateful for the ways they are growing and gaining resilience where they need it, I am thankful for the reminder these two remarkable young women provided me today to see the small beginnings and to rejoice in that ongoing work. It truly is something to celebrate indeed.