Loving the Small Things

As I was sitting in church today I noticed this older couple in front of me. They showed so much affection to each other that it made me jealous. And I know I shouldn’t be, but it did something to me I never thought about before.

Here is this little old lady with a tiny diamond on her finger who showed so much love to her husband. More than I show to my husband who gave me a huge rock! And I know the size of diamond doesn’t matter, but here this woman who has probably been with this man since before the Great Depression and she is still so in love with him that she gave him a sweet kiss when he came back from the bathroom. Now maybe it’s just that they are so old that going to the bathroom could have been the last time they saw each other or maybe it was just a sweet love they shared. I don’t know. All I know is this woman taught me so much about love without even saying one word to me.

She taught me what love is all about. It’s about the small things in life and I don’t mean that literally, like the size of the diamond on her finger. I mean being grateful for the person by your side. The life God has blessed you with. The partner God gave you to share this life with. I don’t know this couples’ story, or history. I don’t know if they had an easy marriage or a hard one with trials and tribulations, but due to their age, I’m assuming it wasn’t the easiest. Only because they looked older than my grandparents and I know my grandparents went through a lot over the years. With the military that almost all men were in back in that day, to being parents, again almost all women had kids because of lack of good birth control, to economy issues to lack of funding and lack of jobs. Women didn’t work for the most part so they could be at home raising the children and taking care of the home. And back then divorce wasn’t the answer so when they got into arguments they worked through them.

It’s the little things like a small peck on the cheek when you come back together that shows love. It’s the small hand holding to show your partner you are forever grateful for their presence in your life. It’s the small things like a hug letting them know you will get through this and this too will pass. It’s the small things like just being there together. It’s the small things like leaning over and telling your wife who is walking with a cane that you will pull up the car.

All the small things I witnessed today with this one couple is worth more than that big rock on my finger. It’s worth more than the business we own, or the rental properties income every month. It’s worth more than the roof over our head, all the small things this couple showed me is worth all the love in the world. It’s the small things that matter in this life.