Small Acts of Bravery

I watched my eldest walk up to the big doors of the high school today.

By herself.

The morning was filled with a big, sit down breakfast with the family - homemade biscuits, scrambled eggs, oatmeal with brown sugar and blueberries, apples and hot coffee.  We talked and ate and then settled in on the couch to watch Wild Kratts and SciGirls on the computer.  The decision had been made to spend time with the family - in jammies and lazy - rather than rush around to get ready so I can walk my girl into the school for ballet.

So I did a drive by, drop off.

She looked so tiny.

It's a weird thing to not follow in, sign off, be with her every minute until she's released to another adult that we can set eyes on.

It seemed to me to be a small act of bravery for my girl.

The one who cried every time I left her when she was a baby.

The one who hid behind my back for so many years when approached by ANYONE.

The one that left gym on the first day of kindergarten with a "tummy ache".

And I thought of how often these acts go unnoticed by those around us.  That we take for granted the small acts of bravery that happen each and every day.  In our own lives we bypass them in favor for the more public, more vocal, more seen acts of bravery.  

Why do we do that?

All those small acts of bravery might one day add up to ONE BIG ACT......but what if they don't?

Does that make them any less valid?

It's funny to me that the stories we study so often when we are young are the BIG bible stories......Noah building the ark, Moses standing before the Red Sea and leading the people out of Egypt, Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath........the BIG names, the BIG acts.  They get top billing in our childhood bibles and classrooms.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

There is so much to learn from those moments, the stories of those people.

But as I get older and dig deeper and read more often and listen more..........well, I begin to think about the small, nameless acts of the New Testament.  The blind beggars shouting out to Jesus, the four men lowering their friend through a roof to Jesus, the widow's offering, a man bringing his son to Jesus to heal and so many more.

These nameless, small acts of bravery.......the shouting out, the giving of all they have, the caring for a child, the helping of a friend........these small acts of bravery?

Well, they all led to Jesus.

Every single one.

We remember them, we read about them because they represent faith and trust and love.

And I think about YOUR life.

I think about all the small acts of bravery that happen every day in YOUR life.

When you show up rather than texting, e-mailing, calling or messaging because you KNOW that someone needs Jesus with skin on and words just aren't enough.

When you walk into a school, a conference, a meeting and you speak for your child, trembling because you know you are the one that will have to fight for them.

When you choose to fight for a marriage and sometimes it does look like fighting but at the end of the battle you find yourself still linked together.

When you teach your children to battle for others, to love the unlovable and as you do so you know there will come a day when that won't be the easy path.........yet you know it's the right way, the right thing.

When you give and you are weary and tired and done in and you wonder if you have anything even worth giving..........but then you see the smile, you hear the words of a changed life, you feel the love that comes from giving.

When you kneel and cry out, the words tumbling from your mouth, from your heart and you think that only brave thing you can do today is to lay before God and cry out.

These small things............these acts reminiscent of the nameless, small acts found in the New Testament?

Well..........they draw you closer to Jesus.

When I am witness to such things, I am reminded of your faith and your trust and your love and it spurs me on.

Hope your day is filled with the witnessing of small, every day acts of bravery that lead you closer to Jesus.