It’s the Little Things

This weekend, I had the opportunity to journey back to Wexford, Pennsylvania. For the first time in three months, I was going home. Prior to this trip, I would not have even called myself homesick. It’s not that I wanted to leave Hope, or felt lost in Holland, Michigan; I just needed home, and all that comes with it. After a long soccer season that sadly came to a close on Wednesday, my mind and body were desperate for a break. For me, the answer was home.

During my seven-hour, solo car ride back east (shoutout Mallory Beswick and family for allowing me to borrow your car), I had a lot of time to construct my picture-perfect weekend.

For starters, I could not wait to see my dog. I’m writing this blog as my eighty-five pound German Shepard curls up next to me and let me tell you, it’s as awesome as I thought it’d be.

In addition, I knew a weekend at the Binnig residence meant plenty of my mom’s cooking, which is always a win. Finally, I could not wait to know where I was again. It sounds simple, but after being in Holland for a quarter of a year, I could get you around campus, to Engedi Church, and Good Time Donuts… but that’s about it. There’s nothing I like more than cruising around my favorite roads listening to music, so I was definitely excited for that. Looking back on it, I have no idea why, while I was still in the process of road-tripping, I was already making plans to get back in a car and drive. Who knows. Anyways, it was a killer weekend. Now back to little things and donuts.

There’s a donut store in Pittsburgh called Peace, Love, and Little Donuts. The weekend I left for school, a new branch of the shop opened five minutes from my front door. This weekend was my first chance to get there, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. The place has every donut flavor you could ever imagine, and the best part, (or worst part, depending on how you look at it), is that every miniature bite is better than the last.

So yeah, bottom line – the donuts rocked. But stay with me for just a second, I promise I have a point:

I wasn’t even supposed to be at the Donut shop. My original plan was to go to Pamela’s, (a famous downtown Pittsburgh diner), but I slept in until 11:30 on Sunday morning, so donuts it was. Their small size got me thinking. What if life is a little like these donuts? There were a lot of really small details about this weekend that reminded me why I love home so much. I’ll spare you all of them, but just to name a few:

1. My older sister who is a nursing student at Pitt, has been hanging around the universities YoungLife program for the past few months. I met her “YL friends” this weekend and I haven’t seen her that happy in years. God is good.
2. My other sister, also older than me, has a new friend. We’ll call him that for now because I’m not sure if they’re “official” yet and do not want to step on any toes. Same thing though, this new “friend” brought out some smiles in Rachel I haven’t seen in a long time. You’re beautiful when you smile, Rach, so keep that up, boy or no boy.
3. I had the opportunity to surprise my Dad this weekend. The man had no clue I was coming home. I never realized how bad of a liar I was until my dad asked what I was up to Friday and I told him I was at Phelps eating dinner, when in reality the Ohio-Pennsylvania border was fast approaching. Again the common theme continues, the look on my Dad’s face when he opened the door Friday night: Priceless. Just like those old Visa commercials.
4. To top it all off, I got to see my best friend Zach who is a wrestler at Arizona State. Although we only got two minutes together, (the kid had a flight to catch), those two minutes made my entire year. Wouldn’t have traded those two minutes for the world.

If you can’t tell, I’m full. Filled with the little things I guess. Of course, there were plenty more great happenings this weekend that made it just that, great. Yes Abby, seeing you was still the absolute highlight!

Anyways, my encouragement is to, yet again, enjoy the little things. Based on my own experience, God does not often work in earth-shattering, life-altering events. At the end of the day, he who is faithful with very little, will also be faithful with very much. His words, not mine.

Hope you all have an excellent start to your work/school week!

With love,
Steve