I love the word Fiat. I love the promise of the YES that rocked the world as our Savior became incarnate. There is so much beauty in the BIG yes that God calls us to- the vocation, the lifestyle, the big picture- of course all that is included in the idea of Fiat.
But over the past eight years God has transformed my heart and allowed me to see the struggle and grace that come from the little moments, the saying YES with love in the day to day tasks of motherhood and marriage and home life is ten thousand times harder for me than to say one BIG yes to something.
I’ve been tempted to despair because sometimes life as a mom is drudgery, especially the little moments. The endless laundry, cooking, cleaning, the taxi service requiring you to be at school pick up at 3:30 and at soccer across town at 3:32, and the burnout I’ve felt is real. And you are allowed to feel that burn out too! What we cannot do is despair or think God has forgotten us. He has not! He notices every little act of love and service we give to others!
In 2019 I ran a marathon and I learned so much about the effect of little things on the BIG things through that process. I started out not able to run even one mile. That one mile became two, became three, became eight, twelve, and eventually 26.2.
The little things compounded into something BIG. The drudgery of training for months turned into the one of the most awesome accomplishments I’ve ever achieved. The grueling before dawn six mile speed runs mattered on race day. The sacrifice of sleep to make that run happen and the changes in nutrition I made to fuel my body better when all I wanted was a chocolate cake… well it turns out that in all things there is a relationship between the little day to day tasks and the big picture goal.
So how does this relate to my story of doing small things with great love? I’m a momma of four children from ages 7 down to newborn. As parents our goal is always heaven for our children and our spouses, ourselves, and anyone else we can take along with us. And what I’ve learned is that the small things are essential to the big picture.
Kissing the ouchie and bringing a bandaid to a crying child, reading the same book for a week straight to your two year old, washing the mud out of their clothes when they were told not to go in the mud (), cooking meals, and listening to the concerns of little ones -these are the quiet moments of fiat that we don’t always appreciate.
In every fiat, Mary’s included, there are little moments. Perhaps this is no where more evident than in family life. In fact Pope Francis refers to the family life of Mary, Joseph and the Child Jesus as the ‘secret of Nazareth’. In Mary’s fiat we do not see the day to day tasks she completed. We don’t see the bread she kneaded, the gathering of water at the well, the endless tasks she had to complete each day. It is the hidden mystery of the little things that enables us to really make progress on our road to heaven.
So how do I say yes? Precisely by doing the little things with great love! The yes to the snuggles when I have a more pressing task, the diaper change in the middle of Mass, the cooking dinner, the laundry, the laundry, and did I mention the laundry?
Of course, the little things are the key to a healthy spiritual life- but my story also involves a BIG fiat too. It involves a commitment to NFP despite struggles and miscarriages, it involves working for my Parish for several years and then discerning it was time to be a stay at home mom when a surprise 4th baby became part of our family future, it involves starting a Catholic women’s podcast called Heart Home Faith and it will continue to include whatever it is that God asks me to say YES to in a BIG way.
But what I realize now is that the greatest love we can show anyone is to help them on their journey to heaven. And the only way we will ever truly get ourselves and our loved ones on the pathway there is to do the daily things with as much love in our hearts as we can. The journey to heaven is often compared to a long distance race and it is each little step that amounts to the final distance.
So be brave in the big things and be brave in the small things because God calls us to both.
