A homemade piece of cornbread, just so flavored peas……from a garden planted and tended just a little each day. There are so many important things I have noted lately that are truly only “little things” done that make a difference. In my often messy kitchen, I have been taking time no matter how busy the day is to simply stop and load the dishwasher before I leave the area in the morning and even if its not clean…to take time to use a hot, soapy, washcloth to wipe the counters. A little thing….but such a difference it makes on how I feel upon returning to it.
There isn’t much value in she who does your laundry, right up to the point where you need underwear or socks and they aren’t there. There is a comfort in having them though in the drawer. I remember back to my childhood long ago and to a neighbor next door….who probably wasn’t less than 76 or so….and I at the time 5 or 6. Yet each day, she was happy to take time to sit with me, listen to my tales, and hug my neck happy I was there. Little things to her, it meant the world to me to be welcomed, wanted.
No where in the Word does it ever belittle anyone for doing little things. In fact, God says to do all things as though unto Him.
Somehow in my messed up acceptance of other’s values for my life, I have willingly accepted that many things that were seen as “little things” like coming home because it was my husband’s desire. Like devalueing some of the things my heart longs to do because they weren’t “anything” of value….well…they were lies I bought into.
Little things matter. Taking time to listen intently to someone’s heart. Taking time to wipe that silly counter because it shows respect to a husband who works so hard to afford it for us….taking time to make the pancakes because a daughter is blessed by a mom who knows her wants….little things like holding your husband in esteem when it would be so easy to fall into the conversations that belittle other husbands….little things like standing up next to the one who is harder to love…and recognizing their flesh is so like the very flesh you yourself have to fight….and recognizing that grace isn’t just for them, but you need it yourself regular…
The Pharisees were into yeasty things….lofty public displays….belief in their loftiness…but I find that I am seeing God much more regularly in the little things….whether it be a butterfly’s majesty as it lites on a flower in the yard….or seeing Jesus as food is shared with another just because….little promptings, little whispers….God is within us constantly reaching out to us to listen, to obey, to answer….the little things he puts before us….
God help me to value the little things I can do, not to push them aside in search of some lofty ambition….help me to make our home a place of comfort, of joy, of little things that show my love for them.
In Jesus name,
Amen
Perspective to Ponder:
What are some of the little things I am ignoring that are completely in my reach to achieve that will show my appreciation and love for others…..and what loftier goals that are perhaps more self serving do I need to reconsider….
