Mother's Day Gift Idea

Monday, Leighton's preschool had all the moms to class for a tea. Here they are singing us a song. Leighton enjoyed showing me around her class room. Below is the craft they made us along with flowers Leighton picked for me this morning. 

I think on holidays like today its easy to celebrate others. I think it naturally flows to want my mom to feel special and send her a small gift to be a thoughtful reminder of how selfless she has been toward me for 29 years. There is no need to over analyze showing love toward Mom or other moms on days like today. "Happy Mother's Day. I love you" is what I want to say. But now that I am one of the mothers, I find myself doing a little more reflecting on days like today. Sometimes holidays come with expectations. Expectations are never good. Sometimes holidays bring about comparison. We all know that comparison is the thief of joy. For me, today brought self-reflection. Scripture revealed today I have been grumbling. Wes, who knows me best, help me realize today that lately my heart has been hardening. Yea he called me out instead of gushing on my "good" qualities (don't be mad at him, I am not).  Things like that are never fun to acknowledge but after I can push aside my pride, I know repenting and focusing on Christ will only bring about restoration. All that to say, I was like what do I want or expect on Mother's Day? For the day, I wanted to spend time with the girls and Wes. I wanted snuggles and kisses. I wanted nice weather and a picnic. I wanted to nap. I didn't want to work. Check. Check. Check, Check. Check. It would have been nice if the girls didn't argue, obeyed everything I said the first time, I didn't get impatient, the house was clean and so on. Those are never guarantees and they aren't must. But for the big picture as a Mother, I want more.

They tried to sneak out of the house before I woke up to go pick me flowers. Leighton was super excited about it. 

I guess seeing/hearing everyone call their mother "The best mom" today gave me that desire to be the best at this mothering thing. I know their are better cooks as moms, better cleaners, better listeners, better prayers, better ___, and so on but I want to have this thing down! How can you not want to be the best for the people you love the most. Read the Voss's words below as I think she nailed what many moms are thinking….or I at least know I do!

We found a picnic spot at the gardens next to the Ballard Locks. 

"You wanted to take the podium and gold medal in mothering — not take a million timeouts behind some locked bathroom door, turn on the water so no one hears you sobbing at what a mess this whole shebang is, and how you’d like to run away. Ask me how I know?

Honest? You wanted to be more.

You wanted to be more patient — you wanted to never lose it, to always have it together, tokeep calm and that is all, always, — and yeah, take their tantrums with a grain of salt instead of throwing one of yours that turned out to be a first class tsunami and a tad bit more dramatic than theirs. You wanted more flashes of wisdom in the heat of the moment when you had no bloody idea what was the best thing to do, when you flung up an S.O.S. prayer, made The Call on the deal that was facing the kid and you —- and the kid hated you for it and you crawled into bed feeling like a heel who always gets it wrong when everyone else gets it right.

You’d about give your eye teeth and your left arm for more time. More time to get it more right and less wrong.

More time so that you could that leave that one more thing that ended up not mattering a hill of beans in the long run, so you could take the time to lay there in the dark with them after prayers and talk about the deep things that only come in the exhale of last light out, and rub their back till they fall asleep.

What you really want, desperately, wildly, in spite of everything — is for them to remember the good…. to remember enough of the times you whispered, “I Love You” … to know how many times you broke your heart and how how hard you really tried.

All you want? Is for them to feel a deep sense of safety, that they are safe to trust people, safe to dream large, safe to believe, safe to try, safe to love large and go fly — and you need to know that you haven’t wrecked that. That they feel the certain, tender embrace of your love —- in spite of all the storming times you acted unlovely.

What every mother wants, her most unspoken need —  is a truckload of Grace.

Grace that buries her fears that her faith wasn’t enough, and that her faults were too many.
Grace that washes her dirty wounds and wounds the devil’s lies.

Grace that says she doesn’t have to try to measure up to anyone else because Jesus came down — and He measures her as good enough, as worthy enough, as loved more than enough.

Grace embraces you before you prove anything — and after you’ve done everything wrong.

Grace holds you when everything else falls apart — and whispers that everything is really falling together.

Grace loves us when we are at our darkest worst — and wraps us in the best light.

So on this mother's day, try giving a truckload of grace. I know I want that from Wes, the girls, my family and friends. I will tune my heart to remember to give grace, Mom. It doesn't cost a thing (someone already paid for it aka Jesus) but it is timeless and valuable….worth more than flowers, homemade breakfasts, jewelry, or massages! 

They love their daddy too!