Sometimes in life we have amazing experiences. We conduct a choir on a cruise ship, we cater for an amazing dinner party, we right an article that gets published… OK, those are all me, but I’m sure you have some stand out amazing memories too. And they are most definitely part of our stories.
But actually, those big things actually make up a very small part of our stories. I was talking earlier to someone with kids who was saying it’s not the big things that shape them, but the everyday little things that happen all the time. And when we interact with the people around us, the big things do matter, but the little things matter too, maybe even more! And if we look at our lives, the things that can change the day around can actually be really small things – a smile, a cuppa, a hug.
Jesus did a huge thing – he died on a cross and rose again. And before that he did some other rather large things – raising the dead, feeding thousands, turning water into wine… the list goes on. But he also did little things. He listened to people. He welcomed little children. He walked and talked and lived everyday – he wasn’t that different from us (without the internet or cars). Of course the big things are important, but Jesus influenced people by doing lots of little things in between those big things, things so insignificant that they aren’t written down but which must have happened for him to have such a following.
We can do big things for ourselves and for other people. Grand gestures are amazing. However, they take planning and energy and we can’t sustainably do them every day. What we can do is make sure we give ourselves credit for the little things. All those little things build up and create ripples just like the big things. And it’s the little things that build relationships.
Someone once said to me, “Do the little things like they are big and God will do the big things like they are little.”
The little things we do are important – don’t underestimate them.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 