A few years ago I attended a conference in Salt Lake City. The key-note speaker for the conference was Meg Johnson, one of the cutest, funniest and most inspirational people I have ever had the chance to listen to. Meg became paralyzed in a tragic accident 10+ years ago and I could write all day about the things I learned from her but the main message I took away is that it is important to realize how important you are to someone else.
I think that each of us has a desire deep down to do something big or to be something more than we are now. I think that is great, but we can’t forget how important life’s little moments can be to someone who is needing us or someone who is praying for us. Meg spoke of the difficult times in her life that she had looked for an angel to come and just tell her that things were going to be okay or that she was doing okay and each of those times, someone would come into her life to help to meet the specific needs she had at the moment.
I look around my house and the majority of my life is spent armpit high in laundry and dishes. To be honest, I rarely leave my house unless I have to run my boys somewhere or if we’re out of milk. It can seem really hard to think that I can make a difference in someone’s life. I’m just me, a farm girl from Utah. What do I have to give? And yet, I never know if something simple I can do could make me the angel in someone’s life.
I often find myself feeling guilty that I can’t give more of my time to serving other people. But service doesn’t have to be big and grand. You can be important to someone by holding the door for them at the store, giving a smile or starting up a simple conversation. Some people just need a listening ear.
The most important service I do during this time in my life is the little acts of service I do daily for my children. I am important to my boys. I can be their angel in times when they are struggling with school, having a fight with a friend, or having a hard time sleeping. I can be more patient or more giving of my time to them. I can scratch their backs for a little longer at night or lay by them when they have a bad dream or can’t fall asleep. I don’t need even a tiny ounce of recognition from the world to be important to a little boy who is home from school for a week and who just wants to lay in my lap.
One of my favorite quotes says, “To the world you may be somebody, but to somebody you may be the world.” Never forget it.
As mothers, we are important because to our children we are angels. We might not feel like it at times but we are important!
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I Love this, Kara! It’s so easy to feel like you’re not really doing anything important when you never seem to leave the same four walls, but we are so important to our families. And on those rare occasions when I do actually walk out the door, I can reach out to others, too. Meg’s message really was amazing. I loved what she said about forgetting your to-do list and making a ta-da list instead. It was so great to meet you!
The ta-da list! I forgot about that and I loved that too. It was so great to meet you!