Michelle DeRusha

Every Day Faith. Faith Every Day.

Mother Teresa

Why a Small Gesture Makes a World of Difference {a story of the warm cookie angel}

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One day a few weeks ago, as I was staring out the sunroom windows into the middle distance, ostensibly “working,” I spotted The Warm Cookie car idling in front of my house.

Let’s pause right here for a moment of silence to appreciate that there is such thing as a Warm Cookie delivery service in Lincoln, Nebraska. It’s true. You can order a dozen chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, butterscotch oatmeal chocolate chip, or any other number of flavors, and they will deliver a box of cookies still warm from the oven right to your door. You can even add a pint of milk or a single serving of vanilla ice cream with your delivery.

Jesus himself came up with this concept, I am sure of it. In between changing water into wine and distributing fish and bread to the multitudes, he trademarked The Warm Cookie.

Anyway, when I saw the Warm Cookie car idling in front of my house, my heart leapt. I’d never been the lucky recipient of a box of Warm Cookies, and I thought my time had finally come.

Alas, it hadn’t. My heart broke as the car accelerated past my house and turned into my neighbor’s driveway. No warm cookies for me.

I posted my disappointment on Facebook, received much empathy for my cookielessness state, and promptly forgot about the whole incident.

Four days later, I was having a terrible-no-good-very-bad day. You know the kind. My writing projects were backlogged at work. I sucked up the vacuum cord, shorted out the vacuum and nearly electrocuted myself in the process. My kids needed to be in two different places at the same time. And I’d just found out my closest friend was moving 1,500 miles away. That kind of day.

Walking in the door after my hour-long commute, I dropped my bags on the living room floor and slumped into the kitchen. And that’s when I saw it. There on the counter sat a cardboard box wrapped in a raffia bow, nestled inside of which were a dozen warm cookies. I read the card: “I wanted The Warm Cookie car to stop at your house.” It was from Kimberly.

Warm cookie in hand, I immediately Voxed my friend Kimberly in New Jersey, gushing into the phone, detailing the terrible-no-good-very-badness of my day and thanking her for her kindness.

But here’s the clincher: the warm cookies weren’t from my friend Kimberly. She messaged me back a little while later, sheepishly admitting that though she would love to take credit for the idea, the surprise delivery was not from her.

Here’s the second clincher: to my knowledge, I do not know any other Kimberlys. Mystified, I called The Warm Cookie, explaining my conundrum and why I hoped to track down the giver. Turns out, The Warm Cookie company had no record of a Michelle as a recipient nor a Kimberly as a giver.

I call her the Cookie Angel now, the mysterious Kimberly who gave me a reason to smile on a terrible-no-good-very-bad day. And as I write this, I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to make this a thing? To launch a Pay it Forward Warm Cookie Angel Campaign? As far as I can see, the world could really use some snickerdoodles right now.

In all seriousness, though – we would all do well to remember the lasting and powerful effect of the small but meaningful gesture. Maybe it’s a handwritten note slipped into the mail. Or a bouquet of zinnias snipped from your garden. Or a lively greeting along your daily exercise route. As Mother Teresa so famously said, “We can’t all do great things. But we can all do small things with great love.”

Thank you, Kimberly the Cookie Angel. Your small thing turned around my bad day and made me smile all week (and my kids were pretty happy about it too).

24 Days of Advent: Small Things in Great Love

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I’m going to say it straight-up: I dread the Christmas season. I understand and appreciate the real point of Christmas, of course – the birth of Immanuel, God with us in the form of a tiny, vulnerable, life-saving baby. Yet every year, it seems, the real point of Christmas gets overshadowed for me, obscured by the myriad tasks — buying, wrapping, decorating, baking, card-mailing, socializing, traveling — that little by little push God with us and his love into the background.

Today’s newspaper is plump with sales flyers, and the malls are packed with Black Friday shoppers —  tell-tale signs that Christmas is bearing down on us. Yet amid this explosion of rampant materialism, I can’t stop thinking about this post that I wrote back in August. I’ve been pondering what Mother Teresa said about doing small things with great love, and I’m wondering: might this Advent be the perfect time to make that simple philosophy a part of my daily life?

Beginning Sunday – the first Sunday of Advent – I’d love for you to join me in aiming to do one small thing in great love for each of the 24 days of Advent. I’m not talking expensive and grandiose. I’m not talking complicated or ornate. Let’s keep it simple – one small gesture or a good deed every day from Sunday until Christmas day.

Buy coffee for the harried mom behind you in the drive-thru line.

Bake a loaf of banana bread for the widower next door.

Quietly pick up your spouse’s wet towel from the bathroom floor.

Write a love note and leave it on your daughter’s pillow.

Mail a card to your elderly aunt in the nursing home.

Volunteer an evening at your favorite non-profit in town.

Pick up a few pieces of trash along the sidewalk or bike path.

Buy a beautiful scarf and donate it to a women’s shelter in town.

Tape a thank you card to the top of the trash bin for your garbage collector.

Look the supermarket cashier in the eye and smile as you ask how her day is going.

If you’re Triple Type A like me, you might want to brainstorm a list of 24 small things in advance. But I suspect that even if you don’t plan your list, you’ll find more than enough small things to do.

The month of December is hectic. There are gifts to purchase and wrap, cards to mail, cookies to bake and shrubs to drape in lights. But amid the flurry of holiday activities, let’s take a few moments each day to celebrate the real reason for this season by doing one small thing with great love.

Can we do this thing? Can we remember that God’s amazing love for us is the real reason for the Christmas season? Are you with me? #SmallThingsGreatLove

“No one can do great things, but each of us can do small things with great love.” — Mother Teresa

 

So although I’ll be doing one small thing in great love each of the 24 days of Advent, to spare you Michelle DeRusha seven days a week, I’ll keep to my regular blogging schedule here during December. On Mondays we’ll still do the #HearItUseIt link-up, and then Wednesday, Friday and Saturday I’ll post about #SmallThingsGreatLove. They will be short posts – a few words, maybe a few pictures. I’d love for you to join me in this. If you’re a blogger and decide to write about #SmallThingsGreatLove, feel free to link to your post in the comments on any of the days. Or keep it simple and do it on Facebook and Twitter and use the hashtag #SmallThingsGreatLove.

 

The Art of Doing Small Things with Great Love

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I settle in, cinch the seat belt across my lap and, with one foot, push my carry-on farther under the seat in front of me. It’s only when I go to power-down my phone that I see I have a text message. And I know, even without looking, who it’s from.

Whether I’m traveling for two days or two weeks, Deidra always sends me a text the morning I depart. It’s a simple message – a wish for safe travels and a good trip. But she always remembers. It’s just one small thing, a few words on my cell phone, but it makes me smile every time. Her text reminds me that I am loved and remembered, that we are connected, she and I.

“Remind me to buy a birthday card for Mary Ann when we’re at CVS,” my mom says as we walk side-by-side past the farm stand and the rows of corn and cabbage along the country road. “No one sends cards anymore, you know,” I tell her. “Well I like them, so I send them,” she replies.

It’s true. My mom never misses a birthday or an anniversary. If you’re in my mom’s address book, you’ll get a card. She single-handedly keeps Hallmark in business. A couple months ago when my dad was in the hospital, my mom forgot to send a birthday card to my Aunt Marie. A week later, Aunt Marie called, wondering what had happened. “Where’s my card? You never forget to send a card!” she told my mom on the phone.

My friend Andrea bakes and cooks – muffins, casseroles, soups, bread, cookies. If you have a baby or a medical procedure, are suffering through the loss of a loved one or a difficult time, it won’t be long before Andrea rings your doorbell, comfort food in hand. My husband Brad’s that way, too. When our neighbor’s Maggie and Mike had a baby, I mused aloud that we should make them a meal. Two hours later, Brad was whipping up a pan of enchiladas in the kitchen.

“No one can do great things,” Mother Teresa once said, “but each of us can do small things with great love.”

Deidra’s texts, my mom’s cards and Andrea’s and Brad’s casseroles remind me just how important these small gestures are. These small acts tell us that we are not alone. That we are remembered, cherished, valued and adored.  They may be small gestures, true, but they communicate a great and powerful sentiment: love.

Tell me: What’s one small thing you regularly do with great love? 

And the winner of the book Wounded Women of the Bible is: Joanne Palm!!!! Rowan picked your name from the Tupperware bowl!! Joanne, please email me your mailing address and I’ll have the book sent directly to you from Amazon. My email: [email protected]