One of the blessings of living in the same place for so many years is the opportunity to observe people over a lifetime.  This week I attended sacrament meeting in a neighboring ward and found Sister Ockey at the organ. As I listened to the prelude, I could see her in my mind playing the same organ forty years earlier for stake meetings.  Her hair has turned white now and her steps have slowed.  Feeling gratitude for her many years of service I watched her carefully make her way to her seat.  As she neared the bench where her husband was sitting, he reached out, took her hand and held it as she walked past him and settled in next to him.  

 

It was a tender, small gesture.  It took little time or energy yet it caused me to ponder how small acts, repeated over and over again change a life, change a relationship, change a family.  Perhaps the impact of our loving words, generous thoughts, and small efforts cannot be measured on their own, but the results when multiplied over a lifetime can produce our greatest blessings.  “Happiness does not spring from perfection but from applying divine principles even in small steps”  again and again and again.  (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Ensign, October 2012)