Encouragement for Busy Mums

Small Things

“...who hath despised the day of small things.” Zechariah 4:10

I learned a very important lesson this week that I wished I had learned a long time ago.

I was reading Edith Schaeffer's book called Hidden Art. The point of the book is to help people use the talents they have even if it's only in a 'small' way.

The chapters focus on different talents or 'arts', such as gardening, music, drama etc. One of the chapters is on writing. Since writing is something I like to do, I was reading that chapter. This is a little bit of what I read, but it can apply to anything, not just writing.

“If you feel you have an unrecognized talent for writing, or if you simply love to write and want to do it, my advice is to write. But write without ambitious pride, which makes you feel it is a 'waste' to write what will never be published. Write to communicate with someone, even if it is literally only one person. It is not a waste to write beautiful prose or poetry for one person's eyes alone.”

I found that very convicting! I felt like she wrote that specifically for me. I tend to feel something is a waste if it's not going to help a lot of people. But that is such a wrong way of thinking, I am learning.

That kind of thinking can affect all the talents we have. We think if it's 'small' it's not worth it. We neglect the little opportunities all around us and just look for the big things.

As I was thinking about all this, I had another thought. What we think is small may turn out to be big. For example, we might help one person. That person as a result may be able to help someone else who will help someone else who will help someone else! Get the idea?!!

I have a little Winnie the Pooh story which has a really good moral to it. It's called “Oh, Bother! Somebody's Grumpy!” The story starts out with owl meeting Eeyore on a snowy day. Eeyore is gloomy about the cold weather and grumbles about it to Owl. As a result, Owl gets all grumpy about the weather and grumbles to Tigger who ends up getting sad too. It goes on until the whole group of them is all miserable and gloomy. Christopher Robin comes to the rescue and cheers up Pooh and Piglet who cheers up Roo who cheers up Tigger etc!

It's a domino effect! You line dominoes up next to each other and push over the first one, and they all go down one by one. Our words, actions, attitudes etc. either knock people down or build them up. So you never know how much good your little word of kindness, your encouraging letter, your phonecall, your friendly email etc. may do!

Don't Despise small Things!