What Get’s Noticed the Most? (Audio)
I woke up thinking about all the Little Things we do…and if my past blogs are any indication, it seems this is a recurring thought.
Still, the things that matter the most to me are not the big ticket items. It’s the little thing. Those inconsequential tasks or items we handle so that others around us will not have to worry. Or, those inconsiderate things we do so as to not create a hardship on someone else. Small Things. Unimportant things, truly, but over time it shows how much we care for others.
We used to feed a stray cat. He’s not here every day, and he does not like to be touched. At all. But we do not want him to starve. So we fed him. With his temperament, we nicknamed him Diablo. He’s drawn blood a few times. I’ve chased him away when he got too aggressive with the food I’m giving him. But he keeps coming back. He’ll disappear for days at a time, and show up with scars. We wonder who got the better end of the battle!
You knew he enjoyed being touched because the broom was his personal groomer, but only from a few feet away as I stroked his back and head with the bristles.
One day, the snow was piled high and Diablo was on the porch. When my bride comes home, and if he’s around, his normal duty is to escort her through the garage and into the house where he struts his stuff and shows us how thankful we should be that he gives us any attention at all! A little dry and soft food, out the front door, to his bowl, and we carefully place it in hoping he doesn’t swipe at us with his razor sharp claws. Every time we are patient and calm, we are allowed to get closer, and closer…
Well, with the snow, he could not easily go to the garage…so, my bride stomped him out a path from the driveway to the porch just so he could get to her without floundering… Such a little thing. But it obviously meant a lot, because she stroked his back and got her hand back unscathed!
We kept thinking, one of these days we’ll tame him… Only, he disappeared for good one day and never returned. That last foray into the cold… Well, I only hope he knew how much we cared for him by the little things we did.
It’s the Little Things!
It’s the little things, foxes as Solomon says it, that spoil the vine (Song of Solomon 2:15). But it’s also the little things that make life so much better! You know, that thoughtful card you receive in the mail means more than you can ever know, and if you save them (as I do) then some day they will mean more to you because you will fondly remember that someone took the time to think of you, buy a card, write a thoughtful note, address the envelope, affix a stamp, and drop it in the mail.
A lot of Little Things Amount to something well thought out are more appreciated than the big things that take up a lot of space.
“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
~Arthur Conan Doyle
Many compare something they have in their little finger (joy, happiness, ability, etc.) as more than others have in their entire body! But equal in size to most little pinkies is that tongue, and we know the danger an unbridled tongue can have. Why do we allow ourselves to be on both sides of the equation, and never walking in the middle? Consistently. It’s like that little devil and angel perched on your shoulder. Little creatures, but they have a big influence on the person standing between…
How can something as small as the tongue have the power to create joy also have the ability to slay the innocent?
But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. (James 3:8-10 NKJV)
We hear it every day. In one breath, praise, and in the next breath slander. Somewhere between the two lives a normal voice. Be we grow to distrust it. It’s hard to draw the line between one side or the other. I hear the breath speak a praise, but the same person’s written word is loud, negative and full of condemnation, foul language and thought.
It’s truly a Little Thing, perhaps, but somehow we must learn to tame the tongue (spoken, or written) and keep ourselves on a straight and narrow course.
It’s all about the little things.
We hear it from every side, every day. No side knows how to be the bigger person! Just let one side start the mudslinging, and before you can even consider what you’ve just witnessed, the other side repeats… I just remembered a quote from the Untouchables, you know, back in the early 1900’s – Al Capone, Chicago, Eliot Ness…
You wanna get Capone?
Here’s how you get him.
He pulls a knife, you pull a gun.
He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue!
That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how you get Capone!
Are they not struggling in Chicago right now? Must still be the Chicago way!
What’s the Christian Way? I think Martin Luther King said it best…
“Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love…” ~Martin Luther King
It’s the Little Things
And yet, it’s the Little Things that produces so much more than all the Big Things can shake a stick at! It’s the Power of the Little Things that will be remembered the most.
We know Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth in his famous Love chapter. Greater than faith and hope, and these are two ingredients that keep us moving toward our sunset years…is Love. The greatest thing over all others is Love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Having faith the size of the grain of a mustard seed will move a mountain (Matthew 17:20). Having hope in Christ for this life only, we are miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19). And I have faith, and hope, but greater than these is the little thing of Love.
Jesus did not teach me to dig you a well, rather, a cup of water given in his name has great value. It’s such a little thing. (Mark 9:41)
My granddaughter was sitting on the landing of our stairs last Monday. On the wall next to her was a tiny moth with wings spread out as if ready to launch. Just like her dad used to speak to those mosquito hawks he saved from certain destruction and cared for their well being (Charlie was their collective name), she talked and watched over that tiny moth until it came time for the drive home. I’m sure that the next time she visits she will want to look to see if that moth is still okay.
Such a little thing. But a deeply caring personality from father to daughter that I see. Makes me happy to be a tiny part of such a Little Thing.