Good deeds go a long way

From "Cure For the Common Life" by Max Lucado

I was doing a bit of reading before going to bed and came across this. It almost made me cry, because it felt like I was getting a pat on the back for what I did today. In case the image isn't so clear, this is what it says:

God inhabits the tiny seed, empowers the tiny deed. He cures the common life by giving no common life, by offering no common gifts. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." Don't discount the smallness of your deeds.

I'm not normally a very expressive person. I mean, I usually prefer to let people know how I feel about them by making time to be there for them. I guess it's true that my love language is quality time. But today, I felt the overwhelming need to affirm a friend that I felt needed it.

And I realized the importance of hearing somebody say these words. Even if you know that someone loves you, it still makes a world of a difference when you hear those three words. You know your parents are proud of you, but hearing them explicitly say "I'm proud of you" can bring tears to your eyes. And even if you're friends and you know you'll always be thankful to have one another, it still means a lot when they really say "Thank you for being my friend."

So that's exactly what I did. And I knew it meant a lot. And it felt so good to know that I made someone feel good about themselves, and that all it took was a note. No grand gestures, no big words, just a note with words that came from the heart.

Now I know that even the smallest gesture can mean so much to people, and something that may have been insignificant for you actually meant the world to them and changed their lives in ways you could never have predicted.

"Don't discount the smallness of your deeds" indeed!