It's the small things

I am a person who tends to want to do the grand things, the big things, and who tends to discount the small, every day things I do as having any real significance.  Today, though, I was reminded that it isn't the big things, the attention-getting, noticed-by-all kind of things that tend to make a difference in the lives of other people.  It's the small things I do, almost without thinking about them, that make the real difference.

Months ago, for instance, I posted a blog on my tornado dreams and how I had come to see them as signs from God that even though hard times were ahead, I would come out of them okay.  Today, I found a comment waiting for moderation.  That blog happened to be exactly what this person needed - help interpreting their dreams in a Godly manner.  It was a small thing from me which made a difference in their life.  In turn, that small action of commenting to let me know they appreciated what I had done inspired me to write this blog entry, which may impact someone else's life for the better.

I am reminded of this in Christ's words to his apostles about the pharisees, lawmakers, and scribes of His day. "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylactories wide and the tassels on their garments long, they love the places of honor at banquets and the most important seats at the synagogue; they love to be greeted in the marketplace and to have men call them 'Rabbi'" and then He told them that "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted".  Lord, remind me that you are best served in the humble thing, in the small thing, in the thing that hardly garners any notice at all.  Help me to humble myself, to place my emphasis on doing the small thing with great love and thus bring glory to your name rather than to my own.