Nobody likes details. They’re boring!
Details are tedious. Details are time-consuming. Details can be boring. We all like the glamourous results of accomplishments hard-won, but most of us don’t like the detail work. It’s the boring side of the equation. We get irritated with the detail person. You know: the one who actually goes around and checks all the detail work and makes everyone toe the line. But because of that attention to detail, the work gets done and done well.
No detail equals certain chaos
In the book of Numbers, God gives detailed instructions to Moses. In Numbers 2, God tells Moses how to arrange the people around the Tabernacle and goes through all the details about who is to lead and where each group is to assemble and how they are to break camp, move out and make camp again.
Numbers 2:1-2
(1) And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
(2) Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.
The details were necessary. The great works of God never get done without attention to detail. Without detail, you have chaos.
My middle daughter used to play soccer. For twenty years I went to countless soccer games because I love her. She got really good at the game and learned a lot of good character lessons as a result of her experience.
In her younger days of soccer, back when she was 4 or 5, most soccer games were organized chaos. Players didn’t know their positions well, didn’t understand game strategy and gameplay consisted of everyone crowding around the ball in hopes of getting a kick in and maybe scoring a goal. The goalie had the thankless task of waiting for the action to come her way. In the meantime, she enjoyed the occasional dandelion or butterfly.
Attention to detail is a mark of maturity
As the players’ experience grew, they got better in their style of play. Each knew her position and her job. They understood game strategy better. They passed the ball, dribbled it and set up scoring plays. Goalies had to be more alert, more agile, more focused. Through good coaching, the players learned to pay attention to the details and those details often led to wins. By the time my daughter got to college, she had to switch from playing an offensive position to playing goalie. Most of the others did not want that job, but my daughter agreed to do it, got with a good goalie coach and learned that position well. She’s a short young lady and most opposing teams made the mistake of underestimating her ability. Her speed and her agility made her an excellent goalie. In her four years on the team, they won nationals three times. A lot of that goes back to attention to detail.
The character you develop by paying attention to detail has payoffs throughout life
My daughter and a friend of hers currently own and operate a cleaning business. There’s a lot of detail work involved in that too. Because they pay close attention to detail, their business is successful.
Soccer never left my daughter’s blood. In addition to running a business, my daughter also coaches a soccer team at a local Christian school. When she came on board, the team had a losing record. My daughter taught the team the basics and went over the details of the game. This year they broke even, the best they’d done in a long time. The girls on her team were really happy with the results and look forward to an even better record next season. All it took was a little attention to detail.
[Photo by Tevarak Phanduang on Unsplash]
Grace in Waves 