In my life as a mom and my job as a teacher, I’m constantly doing things that seem to have no lasting impact. I pack a lunch that will soon be eaten; I correct a paper that a student drops in the recycling bin; I vacuum a floor that will be crumby again within hours. There are times when my daily actions can seem meaningless. And yet when I get past my pity-party, I know that they aren’t. I do these things out of love, with faith that they matter, in the hope that they will make another person feel seen and valued. That’s what most relationships are all about: doing small things with great love, as Mother Teresa once said. And that love, I’m learning, is its own reward.