I realized that it is really the little things in life that often matter the most.
One thing you shouldn’t do before going to bed at night, is read the articles online that are titled “7 signs your son is going bad” or “Snake appears in woman’t bathroom” or even “The danger in everyday foods”.
Our lives are complicated enough, and then reading those types of things, can just really stress me out. They leave staring wide eyed at the ceiling, thinking about the mistakes I have made today, yesterday and likely will make in the future.
I start stressing about the big things, and then I realize, it is the little things that make a difference.
It is things like attending a family member’s music performance, giving that hug to someone who needed one, spending time helping someone clean when they couldn’t get to it, and dropping chocolate in the mail to a friend that needed cheering up.
Sometimes, I stress that it is not big enough, so I never get around to the little things. I think it is not worth it, I am too tired (probably from staying up worrying about it all) or other excuses. We blame ourselves for failing this time or that time.
I think often when our children look back, we will find that they will remember the little things more than the big extra things we did. They will remember you reading to them and praying before bed. They may remember the trip to Disney, but they might have just as fond memories of sitting around a bonfire in the backyard.
For me, I learned that all my worry tells me to do what I can today, not to wait for tomorrow for when I think I can do the big things. Do the little things with them now, and they will be big things in their life tomorrow.