06/07/2026
What if the thing quietly holding you back isn't a major failure… but a small one you decided wasn't worth fixing?
Grateful (Day 239) – The Nick in the Propeller
Grateful for… the reminder that small damage left alone doesn't stay small…
I came across a story recently about a guy and his son who bought an old powerboat for fishing. The thing ran… but it couldn't get up to speed. It shuddered when they pushed it harder. They adjusted the carburetor, changed the fuel filter, ran through every logical fix they could think of. Nothing worked.
When they finally pulled the boat out of the water, the son found it. One propeller fin had a 3/4-inch nick in it.
That can't be it, the dad thought. That nick is too small.
But they installed a new propeller… and the difference was night and day. That tiny nick had been robbing the whole engine of its potential. The motor was doing everything it was supposed to do… but the damage underneath the waterline was making sure it never got there.
That's exactly how small sin works.
It doesn't show up loud. It doesn't announce itself as a problem. It shows up as something reasonable… something manageable… something that seems too small to bother with. No big deal. Everybody does it. It's not hurting anyone. We say those words… and then we leave it in the water and wonder why we can't seem to get up to speed.
So we adjust the carburetor. We try a new routine, a new habit, a new discipline. We change the filter. We show up to church more, pray a little longer, make a few promises. And nothing clicks. Because we keep working on the parts we can see… when the real problem is underneath, out of sight, spinning quietly every time we try to move forward.
Paul said it plainly… a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. That's not a metaphor about size. It's a metaphor about spread. The small thing doesn't stay small. It moves through everything it touches.
And this isn't just personal. We've watched it play out in bigger places too. Decisions that seemed minor at the time. Cultural moments where the easy answer was just to let it go. And we let it go. Then one day we looked up and couldn't quite figure out how we'd drifted so far from where we started. The yeast didn't announce itself. It just worked quietly through the whole batch. That's what unchecked small things do… whether in a single life or something much larger. They spread.
At some point, you've got to pull the boat out of the water and look.
That's what honest time with God does. Not condemnation… just a clear-eyed look at what's running underneath the surface. Because in my experience, the fix is usually simpler than all the other things I've been trying.
A new propeller. A clean confession. A small thing returned to Him.
"This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!"
Galatians 5:9 (NLT)
Remember… The Lord Loves You… Have a Blessed Day
