The Littlest Thing Can Make The Biggest Difference
I was thinking about things that people have done/said to me that were not a big deal to them, but were just what I needed at the time.
When I was much younger, probably 9-10-11 age, I struggled with feeling beautiful. What girl doesn't. I wanted to look nice because I wanted others to think I looked nice. Slowly but surely, I began to realize that if people don't think I look nice or don't want to be around me because I have a pimple, they aren't people I really want to hang out with anyway. (And it's a good thing I figured that out, because I've had bad acne all through my teen years :). My freshman year of high school, a girl told me that she thought I was beautiful. This girl was someone I knew; we had been in different stuff together over the years, but we weren't good friends by any means. We were just sitting in youth group talking, and she said I was beautiful. It's people like that, your peers, that you really believe. I mean, sorry Mom, but you expect it from your parents and even from other adults. But to hear a peer, someone who you know but don't really have any relationship with, that means a whole lot more. I have carried that memory all through high school. Three years later, I told her how much that meant to me. I don't think she even remembered the incident, but I DID.
Another quick (I hope) example is an action. I had just gotten some really bad news on a Tuesday night. My mom had told our co-op what was going on and she asked me, what did I want from people on Thursday? I said I just needed it to be a normal Thursday. I needed people to pretend like nothing had happened. And they did. My friends probably wanted to offer comfort and encouragement, but in acting like it was just another normal co-op day, the helped me more than any words.
That's my point in all this. You might say or do something small; something insignificant to you. But it might be just the thing the other person needed you to do or needed to hear. You might never know the impact you have on someone's life.
When I was much younger, probably 9-10-11 age, I struggled with feeling beautiful. What girl doesn't. I wanted to look nice because I wanted others to think I looked nice. Slowly but surely, I began to realize that if people don't think I look nice or don't want to be around me because I have a pimple, they aren't people I really want to hang out with anyway. (And it's a good thing I figured that out, because I've had bad acne all through my teen years :). My freshman year of high school, a girl told me that she thought I was beautiful. This girl was someone I knew; we had been in different stuff together over the years, but we weren't good friends by any means. We were just sitting in youth group talking, and she said I was beautiful. It's people like that, your peers, that you really believe. I mean, sorry Mom, but you expect it from your parents and even from other adults. But to hear a peer, someone who you know but don't really have any relationship with, that means a whole lot more. I have carried that memory all through high school. Three years later, I told her how much that meant to me. I don't think she even remembered the incident, but I DID.
Another quick (I hope) example is an action. I had just gotten some really bad news on a Tuesday night. My mom had told our co-op what was going on and she asked me, what did I want from people on Thursday? I said I just needed it to be a normal Thursday. I needed people to pretend like nothing had happened. And they did. My friends probably wanted to offer comfort and encouragement, but in acting like it was just another normal co-op day, the helped me more than any words.
That's my point in all this. You might say or do something small; something insignificant to you. But it might be just the thing the other person needed you to do or needed to hear. You might never know the impact you have on someone's life.
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