Keep It Small. Keep It Simple.

Did you know that a kind word spoken in someone's ear changes their body chemistry in a measurable and positive way? A kind word is a spiritual gift that touches another's spirit—and helps them physically.This is not new information. Biblical Proverbs proclaimed this many centuries ago.

When Jan, in my book, The Miracle of Kindness, opened the small cracker package for the little old lady in the nursing home dining room, Jan realized she had given a caring spiritual gift to her. The Senior Citizen glowed for an hour afterward. For that afternoon, the woman was a healthier human being, thanks to a tiny act of love.

Marilyn Monroe was once asked if she had experienced love as she was moved from one foster home to another in her youth. She thought, and then answered. "Yes, once when my foster Mother was putting on her makeup, and I was sitting on the counter watching her, she took her powder puff and puffed me on the nose. I felt that as love." Decades later that tiny act of affection was still blessing her.

You may have heard about the profound research project carried out on the East coast in a cardiac care unit. The researchers noticed the very ill patients, all of whom had badly impaired cardiac systems, showed occasional islands of health on the EKG printouts the medics studied. They then reconstructed the events surrounding those healthy moments to determine what had been going on in their care at that moment. Invariably it was when nursing care was being given, or they were being bathed or touched in some caring way. That personal care normalized their sick hearts for a few minutes.

KEEP IT SMALL. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Loving others is big, but let it begin as small as a mustard seed. Jesus promised the tiny seed will grow into a mighty tree. Resurrection followed Jesus' death and a form of that same miracle happens to us when we die for others, in small but real ways. (Regular readers of my writings know that I consider interrupting your own agenda or schedule or busy-ness for the sake of someone else is a way of 'dying' for others.)

We have so much to offer people around us. Small acts, intentionally given, can mean so much to people. You can be a 'Jan'. You can be Marilyn Monroe's mother. You can give health to those whose bodies are weakened.

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