A few days ago, on Brett’s birthday, our plan had been to head into the Smokies and take the boys on a short hike to a lesser known water fall with a good swimming area, but as days around here have a tendency to do, things got a little busy and we ended up opting to head to a closer swimming hole instead and skip the hike altogether.

Brett and the big boys were still swimming, but Decklan had gotten cold, so I carried him back to the car to change his clothes. The whole way back I was thinking about all of the things going on in the world and in my heart and in my head to do, and I was praying on repeat, “God, how am I ever going to do this? How am I going to do any of it? How, how, how, am I going to do any of this?”

I got to the car (we were at the very edge of the parking area) and opened up the tail gate and was in the middle of changing Decklan when this SUV whipped up beside me. I glanced up and thought, “Well, that’s an odd place to park, but whatever.” And went back to changing Decklan. This woman popped out of the SUV, walked up to me and said, “I think I’m supposed to give you this. I make bracelets and I grabbed this one as we were headed out the door today and put it on. As we were leaving the parking lot, I saw you standing up here and felt God tell me I’m supposed to give this bracelet to you. It’s nothing special, just a copper bracelet, but maybe the words will mean something to you.”

I glanced down at the words and read, “A LITTLE BIT EVERY DAY”

I’m not the trendiest of people these days (let’s be honest, I never was), so I don’t know if “A little bit every day” is a common thing to be stamping on to jewelry, but whether it is or isn’t, the words were exactly what I needed to hear. Not just for the simple reframe that I needed for the things that are in front of me to do, but for the beautiful and timely reminder that God loves us and hears us when we pray.

And the way the words came to me? It couldn’t have been a more perfect reminder that we are all connected and have the ability to be the answer to someone else’s prayer and the ability to bring great joy and great peace to others with very simple acts of kindness.