Little things matter too.

Most people recognize when God does something BIG in there lives - perhaps a supernatural healing, the salvation of a loved one, divine protection in a situation where you 'should have died', etc. But how often do we overlook the 'little' things that He does each and every day? 

Let me put it in another perspective... My wife and I just recently celebrated our 20th anniversary. I cannot even begin to calculate the number of meals that she has prepared, the mountains of laundry that she has washed or the countless other 'small' things she does all the time for our family. Now to be honest I have come to expect to come home to a warm meal and wake up to clean socks just like she expects the grass to be mowed, the cars to be maintained, the gutters to be cleaned... you get the point.

Here is the deal - just because something is mundane doesn't mean it's meaningless.

Ponder that point for a moment. My wife is a GREAT cook for which I am very grateful and I make sure to let her know it. I think that the very least I can do when she takes the time to prepare a meal for our family is to say 'Thank you' and express my appreciation. I think it is my responsibility to make sure that our kids show the same gratitude. And I mean every time. To me the routine doesn't take away from the value but rather adds to it. 'Wow, you cooked another amazing meal?!' FYI 'Please' and 'Thank you' go a long way both with God and with man. 

So back to my first paragraph. I believe that God does big things and little things all the time. Our part is simply to ask and then to give Him the credit (read glory) when He answers.

     "You do not have because you do not ask God." - James 4:2b NIV

See I believe that prayer should be our first response, not our last resort. When it comes to big things we are willing to ask but what about the simple things? I ask Him for grace and favor all the time and guess what - I get it! You may think it's silly but I pray for great parking spaces and get them (front and center at Walmart on Christmas Eve baby!). On the same note when God does something huge we often give Him the credit but what about the 'little' stuff (not that anything is little when God is involved)?

Let's make sure our expectations don't devalue our appreciation!

So I want to wrap this up by giving God credit for a little thing. My wife and I and two friends were recently snorkeling in the Caribbean when she lost her snorkel. She headed back to shore and when I got there she told me what happened. I asked here where she lost it and she pointed toward the ocean and said, 'somewhere out there.' We had probably covered the area of 3-4 football fields so the likelihood of finding it was pretty small. Nevertheless I simply asked God to return it to us. My friend and I headed back out to continue snorkeling and after ten more minutes of enjoying the coral and fish we decided to head in. We turned around, swam about 20 feet and right below us was her snorkel sitting on the ocean floor. I might add in a location that was shallow even to dive down to. Good luck? I don't believe that for a second. God's love? Absolutely!