Sweet In Secret

Today, I am in full RA mode. We do December check outs, making sure everything is squared away for all the students to be gone for a month.

Among the hustle of the cleaning and packing, I get to pray over and check in with students' hearts. What are they wanting in their relationship with God over the next month, and to take with them through the next year? What are they doing over the Christmas holiday? New Years?

For most of them, I get to ask them in person as they arrive again in January. But for two of my lovely ladies... well they are graduating at semester and I won't see them again until May, when they walk across the graduation stage.

Today, as I was checking my graduates out of their room, I gave them their graduation gifts and then they completely surprised me with a gift! In the present, these two sweet, quiet,  and very introverted gals recounted every small effort that I had made to reach out to them and make them feel loved. Even things from previous years, when I invited them in my room to have rose tea in real tea cups- for just the three of us. They expressed that they always felt welcomed and that they appreciated every single time I took to go out of my way and reach out to them.

That's when the tears fell. As soon as I left their room, my heart overflowed with gratitude. I had a small, sweet piece in their college experience. An experience that is now ending. And in moments of chaos and stress, I could be their sister of prayer, love and support. To lift them up now and in my heart forever. What a beautiful privilege.

It reminds me that God also sees what is done in secret. He sees what is done for the quiet ones, that they are not forgotten, but deeply loved.

I share this 1) because I want to remember this moment forever, and 2) to encourage you. Maybe you reach out to others. You go out of your way to make another person feel special, valued, and cared about. May God bless you!!! We can't do it for everyone, and I myself often find myself wishing I could do more. But know this, God takes our sweet moments- those secret tea parties and moments when you stop to write a nice note or say a prayer with a stressed friend- and He uses it. You really never know how much it can mean to someone else! I sure didn't!

1 Corinthians 13 talks teaches us that love is the greatest, greater than all of the awesome things this life has to offer. Love is so profound, so unreasonably kind and generous and forgiving and merciful. "Three things will last forever- faith, hope, and love- and the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT.

I am so, so incredibly grateful to have been a part of these ladies' lives. Their season of living on my floor has come, and it has gone. While the parting does come with sadness, I am reminded that I have so many other ladies who I still get to drink rose tea with! I don't want to take any of them for granted, but I crave to love them well. I am determined to show them that they deserve to be ridiculously and fiercely loved, just like the Father loves us.

Friends, here's to more sweet moments, to God using connections that glorify Him (even the small things), and to letting love being the greatest of them all! Wrap your loved ones in SO MUCH love this season! ...And maybe share a kind smile with someone else who needs it more than you do. You just never know how that will bless someone!

Blessed Beyond Measure,
Mel xoxo