AS 2020 comes to a close, I will share with you some pieces I have written over the years that will stimulate you and position you for victory getting into 2021. DEVOTION BY ERASMUS MAKARIMAYI Today's piece was originally published by NewsDay on Saturday July 6, 2013 titled small things matter. I have added some new lessons in it but the original import remains. As you finalise your new year resolutions or fine tune your strategic life plan, consider it please. From the date of first publication, how have you fared? The 2013 Instalment reads. Some months ago I was in a supermarket and wanted to pay the cents part of my bill using South African currency, the rand at the prevailing exchange rate. The till operator told me that they didn’t value the coins at the same rate they did for notes. For example if R100 note converts to $12, they would convert R5 coin to $0,50 which is a skewed exchange rate. According to this scenario R100 in coins will not add up to $12. I asked the till operator if she had a child to which she applied in the affirmative. I further asked her if she regarded that child as a person or she will do so when the child attained majority age. To cut long story short, dollars are made up of cents and children grow up to be adults and are people even at a young age. Big things are a sum total of small things. My message today was birthed out of this supermarket experience. I began to wonder how much in life we ignore and brush aside the small matters that are the components of the big thing. Sometimes we are brought down by the little things that we fail to deal with while we focus at the so called bigger picture. The bigger picture cannot be perfect if the minute details are imperfect. It is wise to be able to start counting from one. If you remove all the small pieces that make up the big thing, you will be left with nothing. Learn to appreciate the individual power of each component in the sum total. Pay attention to detail; the small things inside the big thing matter. They are the essence and substance of that great thing. Dollars are made up of cents or in elementary commerce you learnt the rule; take care of cents and dollars will take care of themselves. Do yourself favour by avoiding big things if you have not yet mustered the art of handling small things. The principle is that if you succeed in handling small things you will be promoted to manage big things. Don’t expect a higher level before you pass at the lower level. Jesus says in Luke 16:10, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” If you are faithful and sincere in managing a small portfolio, God will trust you with a larger enterprise. If you cannot manage one dollar you should not expect a million dollars. Don’t expect to supervise a whole department, company, ward, constituency or country if you cannot supervise yourself. I have lived to see people falling from great heights because of small things that they did not address. There are people that