How to Live Small and Love Big

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After reading Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World and  Radical Hospitality a month or so ago, God has really been impressing on me the idea of "living small". What is small living? It is enjoying the moment you are in, being present for others, and being content in the roles that God has given you. Radical Hospitality  has impressed on my heart that we need to love the one who stands in front of us. It doesn't matter who they are or how great or small they are. We need to love big while living small.

For me, this has been a long journey. Loving others is hard for everyone of us. For me, it is downright scary. After years of dysfunctional relationships I find it a terribly great task to reach out to others. To love them unconditionally. After all, I have learned that when you love you run the risk of getting your heart smashed. There are days when I have asked myself, "Is it worth it?" Was it worth it to love the one that couldn't love me back? Was it worth it to give to the one who only gave me words of criticism? Was it worth the risk? The conclusion I have come to is YES.

Normally, as human beings we get the "Live small. Love big." idea backwards. We want to live big and end up loving small. We all have this secret desire to be known, well-liked, loved, and adored. We think by living big we can achieve our desires. The only problem? Living big makes us small. Living big shuts out others so that we are only capable of loving small. The irony is you are only "big" when you live small and pour out yourself for others. It was never about you, but rather how you can impact the lives of those around you.

So how do you live small and love big? Here are some practical ways...

-Give a gift to someone who is going through a rough time.
-Sacrifice your time for another.
-Be present with your kids.
-Look people in the eye and smile.
-Pray for others {Here is a simple system to do just that.}
-Don't look for ways to be great, in-charge, or powerful. Look for ways to leverage your power to help others.
-Give words of encouragement.
-Decide that the criticism you want to give is not worthy of verbalizing.
-Defend the victim.
-Forgive the unlovable.
-Let go of your judgments of others.
-Listen {REALLY LISTEN} to others.
-Champion the person who has been successful {even if it is something you wanted success in.}

So how else can you live small and love big?