Small blessings - really are big blessings!!!

I have to admit. . . sometimes it is - as they say - hard to see the forest for all the trees.

This weekend I was reminded that sometimes it's those small blessings that we need to take a really good look at, rather than hoping for something big to happen.

For example, this morning as I walked into the church to teach at Preschool, I saw a smiley face sticker on the ground.  Now that in itself might make someone smile, but the reason it made me smile was because it was MY smiley face sticker.  You see, I taught Sunday School yesterday and the children were doing some decorating on a piece of a log that turned out to still be quite damp.  It was frustrating for them and me to try and get those stickers to stick on.  However, we did have some good conversation about forgiveness and judgment.  In the end most of the stickers ended up in the garbage pail but others took white glue to glue them on.  So that was a small blessing.  A great Sunday School lesson.  However, this morning I was was "re-blessed" by it because of the sticker I saw on the ground.  It reminded me that my kids do listen, they do hear what we are teaching them, and no matter how seemingly insignificant it feels we are, the kids DO take their crafts and lessons home with them, and share it with those around them.  I guess one child is minus a smiley face, but it certainly made me smile this morning.

Today as I sat and had my lunch, the two bird feeders that sit in front of our patio doors brought me much joy as I watched a chickadee flit back and forth opening seed after seed. I am pretty sure our cat enjoyed it too as she sat happily chattering as the bird flew back and forth between the feeders!!

As I listened to my son and daughter banter back and forth this morning, I was thankful for their silly chatter because it reminded me - they really do love each other!

One of my piano students gave me one of her little butterfly knickknacks that she was getting rid of.  It's not that it's an incredibly unique item, but it DID come from the heart.  She could have thrown it out or given it to one of her friends, but she thought to wrap it up and give it to me.  It sits proudly here on my desk to remind me that what I do is about more than just teaching piano.

As I listened to my daughter and her friend chat back and forth this afternoon, I was struck by what a blessing it was that I was able to pick them up for her friend's piano lesson and that Taylor has such incredible Christian friends.

These things. . . I so often take for granted.  Those and so many more. I get bogged under by other things.  Life gets clouded over by the "big" things.  But today, I was reminded that it is the little things that ARE the big things in the end.  Those are the blessings that bring me joy.  They are the every day things that happen that God has blessed me with.  They are the things that I so often overlook - yet the things that God presents me with every day - over and over.

Join me in looking for the little blessings today.  Because God is giving them to us everywhere.  We just need to open our eyes and realize, that the little things ARE the big things.  They are all blessings God has wrapped up as gifts for us to take with us every day.  Truly God has given us many great things!