It’s the Little Things

“more pleasing to God is one good work, however small it be, that is done in secret with no desire that it be known, than a thousand that are done with the desire that they be known to men.”
St. John of the Cross

Just ask my kids, and they will tell you that they have heard their mom say “it’s the little things” at least a thousand times. So many times in their lives they would be discussing some huge gift that a friend had received, or some enormous favor that a person did for another, and they would hear me repeat “it’s the little things” in life that are also very important.

In reflecting on just what to say today, I was reminded of so many little things my kids and my husband do for me, without anyone else noticing, that mean the most. My daughter when she was a small child bringing me a “flower” from the yard – it was a dandelion – which was promptly put in a jar of water to protect it in the kitchen. My husband randomly buying me peanut M & M’s because he knows they are my very favorite (I mean, the regular M & M’s just aren’t worth the calories). My adult daughter randomly texting me in the morning and telling me that she misses me. And my son spending hours researching for me the latest and best way to correct the physical issues that I struggled with for years. All of those random acts of service as society calls them, which are truly acts of love, mean the most to me. Something seemingly simple, but when done without a lot of fanfare and done in secret really touch my heart for they mean that they were thinking of me and loving me.

Imagine what it must be like for God when we reach out and do something simple for one of his children. Opening the door for the person behind us, watching a gentleman open the car door for his beloved out of respect for her, and, one of my very favorites, paying for the order of the car behind you in the drive-thru restaurant which really makes someone’s day a little bit brighter. These expressions of love to strangers are really our reaching out in love to God, telling Him we are thinking of Him and his beloved. “Thank you God for blessing me so abundantly, let me show you my gratitude and how much I love you.”

I recently came across the following written by St. Therese of the Child Jesus which expresses more perfectly what I am trying to say.

“If the good God Himself were not to see my good deed (which is impossible), I would not be disturbed. I love Him so much that I would want to please Him, without His knowing that it is I who am doing it.”
Our Beloved Bridegroom showers us daily with His expressions of love. Let us all commit ourselves to letting Him love others through us. Who can I love today Lord, and how?

Karen Baglieri
Member of the Sisterhood of Mary the Mystical Rose of God