In the little acts you will find greatness. To be a hero in a grand moment is easier than being a hero every day. Sometimes it seems heroic to be patient with a loved one. Sometimes it seems heroic to get in your car and run errands. Sometimes it seems heroic to pick up the phone.
It feels that way to you because you struggle, feeling that you have to make great effort. In that way, you are heroic.
When a hero does his brave act, he is not struggling. He isn't even thinking. An opportunity to help presents itself, and before he knows it, he is helping. It is almost as if he had no choice. A situation was there, and he was there, and he went to the middle of it and saved a life, did a good deed, spoke up, carried the day, all without thought of anything but what was at hand. It was almost automatic. It is natural to be brave when life calls on you to be so.
If you thought less, you would not feel the strain you often feel. You might feel none at all, for you would be following impulses of the heart.
Sometimes you have an impulse to do a good deed, and you hesitate because you think it might not be well received, or that you might be considered foolish. What has happened to My children that they would analyze an impulse to do a good deed?
The child who pulls out a dandelion from the grass to present to his mother is not thinking that perhaps she will not like it or take it amiss. All he knows is he wants to give. And a dandelion is what he has to give.
What do you have to give?
If you have time, give it. If you have help to give, give it. If you have money to give, give. Even when you don't have something to give, give anyway so that you will feel better. No longer think that you do not have enough. Give. What you give will multiply itself.
The arithmetic you use is mistaken. You think that subtracting an item leaves you with less. When you have planted a seed in the ground, true, you have one less seed in your hand, but the seed in the ground is also yours, and one seed can produce twenty-five zucchini! Is this subtraction?
You are learning to multiply. Actually, you don't have to learn multiplication. All you have to learn is to give with joy.
Do not deny yourself in order to give. Do not give away more than you want to, yet learn to want to give more for the joy that giving gives. If you do not receive joy from giving something, don't give it. In that case, it wouldn't be giving anyway.
When you really give, you are making room in your heart. Giving is like the yeast that swells the bread. A little yeast goes far. We are leavening your heart, beloveds. Your mind is well-advanced only because it has been given precedence. Now put the development of your heart first. Educate your heart and you will know Whose heart you carry in your breast, you will know why it has been given to you, and what you must do with it.