The little things

I forgot how she rambles on

How her passion plunges her into miseries depths and raises her to towers of triumph

I forgot how she loves, and desires love

How her life of rejection shaped her heart with holes of inadequacy but couldn't steal her hope

I forgot how much I loved her

And her story, how she makes me smile, makes me laugh, makes me feel

Anne with an "e"

Self described, skinny, red-headed, prone to fly into temper, imaginative - Anne

Listening to him read her story I couldn't shake these words

"All things great are wound up with all things little"

For me, it is the little things that seem the most overwhelming

It's the mundane and the routine that seem to drain and strip at any hint of greatness

The never ending tower of laundry

The writing I wanted to do but didn't get to

The scattering of legos and barbies, and construction paper scraps

The intention of exercise

The dusty surfaces and dirty dishes 

The worrying

The lesson plans and menus and grocery lists

The arguing and disciplining 

It's the everyday stuff of life, the stuff that's never really done 

It's the taunting whisper of "can't"

The nagging feeling of tired

And the dripping of time 

And then I think about those words, 

How there's real truth in them

And how nothing great just happens 

I think about how ordinary my life is 

How we're all ordinary

How greatness is birthed from ordinary 

How God chose ordinary as a means for our salvation

And how He makes us great

So greatness is wound up in the little things,

Little things done faithfully, lovingly, thankfully 

It's in the folding of laundry, and changing of diapers

It's in the dusting of shelves, and best intentions

It's in the laying down of worries and gentle loving discipline

It's in the breaking up of arguments and the picking up of toys

It's in the everyday

Because "I can"

"You can"

Even when we're tired

In spite of being tired

Because time is going to drip

I'll be a year older, they'll be a year older and one day we'll all be gone

So let's be great 

Great at thanksgiving

Great at laying down worries

Great at loving

Great in grace

Trusting our ordinary is good enough for His planned great

Linking up with Holley Gerth at Coffee for your Heart