Great and Noble

Helen Keller said, "I have found that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless... I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.

I always had ambitions of doing great works. In fact, my mom always said, My kids will be great at whatever they do. In turn, I always believed that I needed to do something significant. Most of us have probably dreamed of having our name in print or achieving stardom or arriving as a star athlete. But, to be honest, the majority of the people are just ordinary people doing ordinary jobs. The people that stand out are the ones that do their ordinary jobs with excellence. The difference in ordinary and extraordinary is just that little extra. It makes all the difference in the world. There are only a few superstar positions open, but there are many ordinary positions where we can perform extraordinarily.

The key, as Helen Keller says, is to treat those humble things as though they were great and noble. When you give them the attention they deserve, then and only then do you get to do a few great things. The good news is that you'll be prepared because you did the small things first.

When artists transfer a drawing to a large surface, like a wall, they often divide the painting into small blocks. Then they paint the blocks one at a time. I may not be able to paint an entire wall to exact detail, but I could paint a small block, then another, then another until eventually I have a huge portrait.

What little thing does God want us to do? No matter how small, we should treat it with nobility and accomplish it with vigor.

[ Author Unknown -- contributed by Karl Forehand, via 'Daily Wisdom' ]