5 Minutes to Change Your Day

You know how nice it is when someone sends you a text or an old-school note in the mail? It’s nothing specific except to extend that they have been thinking of you, praying for you, or just want to let you know how grateful they are for you?

It doesn’t happen often, right? In this age of technology, to receive a handwritten note from someone with a word of encouragement is so thoughtful. When it takes less than a minute to send a text, it takes much more time and preparation to write a note on a card, address the envelope, put a stamp on it, and mail it. 

My mentor used to say we have “thought notes” in our heads, but we often don’t do anything about it. A “thought note” could be when we are feeling grateful for that old friend who's been with us through thick and thin, but we don’t express our gratitude. It’s a “thought note.” We think about what we’d say, but we don’t actually say it. 

Why do you think that is? Is it a risk of being vulnerable? Or looking foolish? Or feeling too mushy? Maybe all of these excuses, or none of them. But maybe your words will brighten someone’s day, or make their week, or give them the hope they’ve been needing.

A former teacher of mine once showed me a plastic bag he kept in his classroom stuffed with cards. These handwritten notes and cards were ones he received from parents and students throughout his years of teaching. He said when he was feeling discouraged about his job he would open the bag and read through the notes. The words of gratitude and encouragement would give him strength to stay the course. 

I want to challenge you this week. When you have a “thought note” about someone in your life, transfer it from your brain to a card. Take your gratitude for your child’s teacher, or your neighbor, or your employer, tell them about it. It will only take you 5 minutes. It could change someone’s day. It might even change your day.

Small Adjustments to Big Change

I’ve been thinking about the large gestures and grand overtures in desiring change in our lives. With each new year we want to be better, faster, more kind, more resilient, and yet none of these things happen overnight. In order to reach our goals, we have to make small corrections, small adjustments to our rudder of life.

When my children were little I was overwhelmed with the thought of all that I needed to teach them. How can I possibly cram in everything they need to know in 18 short years?

Small adjustments.

When my firstborn daughter was about 16 months old, we began doing family devotions after dinner time. I found a book that had 365 poems about God and we used that to launch our time together after dinner, talking about God. She was adorable and always wanted to do motions to the words. Knowing that faith is personal, we let her take the lead.

As the years have progressed, our family has found different books to help us navigate through the years spanning from toddlers to teenagers. We’ve not been religious about family devotions, but it’s been a beautiful springboard for my children to talk about their day, the struggles they’re facing, and how the devotional from the reading impacts and/or challenges them.

As my children are becoming young adults the discussions have shifted from us modeling our faith, to them showing us their faith. It’s a thing of wonderment, as a parent, to sit back and listen to my sons discuss how they are sharing their faith at school, what challenges they face as they read the Bible on their own, and how they are including God in their everyday life. To me, this is a big change from when they were little, but it all started with a small adjustment.

Can I encourage you to make a small adjustment in your day? Take 5-10 minutes after dinner, or before breakfast, or whatever works for your family, and read through a devotional or a few pages from a book together. It just may change their lives.

If you’d like to see a collection of some of the books we’ve used through the years, click on this Goodreads link.