Picture Perfect
Hours of effort and energy poured into making the most special of birthday cakes. Cramped fingers and sugar overload represented the total accomplishment of my day.
Finally, after pain-staking meticulation, the goal was achieved the carousel cake was complete. The young girl’s face glowed. The investment was worth every minute.
As I continued to labour in the kitchen, preparing for the party, all of a sudden I heard a thud! “What was that?” I wondered. My heart plummeted, my stomach twisted and my blood pressure rose. The cake had toppled. Before her friends could even see it, the masterpiece had fallen apart.
“I’m so sorry.” I explained to my precious daughter.
“It’s ok, Mum. We got to decorate it and the other cake and it was fun.”
This was the cake she had chosen. The one she had been excited about and waited on for months. We righted it as best we could and took a picture.
Yes, she was a a bit disappointed (I was too) but, it was far more important to her that I had undertaken to make her happy than what happened afterward. While I was decorating the carousel (which she had baked), she decorated a second cake. We spent time together, we enjoyed one another. We appreciated each other.
The mentoring, the commitment and the relationship building were all ultimately more important than the cake.
Titus 2:2-4
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,
God’s word directs us to teach our children. In order to do that, we have to dedicate time to them. Even when time seems even more precious than money, it is what our children need most from us. Love demonstrated through time.
The Bible is full of examples of God teaching His children. One of the most significant for me is
Deuteronomy 11:19
Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Day in and day out, God has called me to teach my children. That is more than the homeschooling that we do. That includes character training and love of the Lord as well.
My children know that I am fallible. They know that not everything I do turns out the way it was planned (at least not the way I planned it). What is important to them is that they know that I do it for them – because I love them.
How much more does God love me! This is not a question, it is a statement.
Psalm 136:26
Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.
The Psalms are full of David’s declarations of God’s love but I think that the greatest Scripture on love is
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
That is the perfect picture of unfailing, self-sacrificing love.
And it was a wonderful day … Great job!