Motherhood: Beautiful Moments and the Promise of Things Yet to Come

I know I used the phrase “beautiful moments” in my title, but I would like to start out by sharing a not-so-beautiful story about my motherhood.  The story of Mother’s Day 2012.  Mother’s Day 2012 was all about me.  That was my perspective anyway.  I wanted to go somewhere “nice” for lunch.  We left the first restaurant we tried when we were told it was a two hour wait.  We spent about an hour driving around looking for a restaurant with a shorter wait.  We finally found a restaurant with a one hour wait.  When we were finally seated one and a half hours later, one thing was clear.  We should have stayed at the first place.

At 4:30 in the afternoon, we finally finished our afternoon meal.  By now, it was getting late and we had spent a lot of money.  Even so, I was horrified when my husband decided we were not going to go get “my flowers.”  We’ve gone together to pick out flowers on Mother’s Day since Clara was a tiny baby.  It’s tradition.  {And Mother’s Day is all about me.}

I was not having a good attitude.

When we got home, my kids presented me with hand made gifts – bracelets, cards, thoughtful stuff they had purposely made when I wasn’t around.  I softened a little.  But the raw truth is that I spent the rest of the afternoon pouting, angry with my husband, and basically ignoring my family.  I threw supper on the table, didn’t clean up, and went to bed in tears. God spent the entire night and the rest of that week teaching me that Mother’s Day is not really all about me!  What an amazing mess I made!

Fast forward to Mother’s Day 2013.  This year, I very humbly asked my husband if we wanted to take the kids to get flowers on Mother’s Day. “Well, yes that is what we usually do.” he said.  When the topic of lunch came up, I suggested to my husband that we find some place cheap and fast for lunch. “No one else will think of that,” I said, “And that way we will have more time for the kids to help me pick out flowers.”  He agreed.  We decided to go to our favorite fast food Mexican restaurant which is a privately owned place that is normally hopping on Sunday at lunch.  I was right – very few people thought it was “good enough” for Mother’s Day!  We got in and out and Oh.My.Goodness. the kids were so excited to go t o the garden center!

Peter and Joshua (the four-year-old-twins) didn’t even remember our tradition.  Peter wanted to touch everything and was so excited that we were buying flowers for Mommy’s pots.  Joshua could not stop talking about the “rainbow of colors.”  Everyone helped find petunias and marigolds, and herbs, and three tomato plants.  Dan picked out a raspberry bush, and snuck a few surprises onto the cart when I wasn’t looking.  For one thing, he found Rose Moss.  I love Rose Moss!

By 4:30, we were at home working together to plant the flowers. Everyone helped carry soil and pots and flowers to the back.  Each of the younger children got to plant two pots with my help, and I taught them about lining the pot, adding fertilizer, and pinching the roots.  It certainly wasn’t easier or more neat to have the little ones helping plant, but that wasn’t the point.  They wanted to help and they wanted to give of themselves to me.  Jonathan did much of the heavy lifting and planted one pot entirely on his own, and Clara (who didn’t want to get her hands dirty,) took pictures for us.  What a blessing my older children are as they become more independent and more helpful!  The end result was lovely and exciting at the same time.  And I remembered why I love our tradition of planting our pots on Mother’s Day.

Children are a lot like plants.

So much potential!

Each pot has 3 or 4 plants nestled in the soil with plenty of room to grow.

So much promise!

Several of the plants already have food, and all of them have buds and blooms just waiting to open and beautify our patio.

So much beauty!

Already, my plants are beautiful in their own right, but sure to present an even prettier picture with enough time, attention, and pampering.

 I can’t wait!

When supper time rolled around, my husband asked if I wanted to throw together a snack supper for the kids like I did last year. “A lot less work, and a lot less to clean up,” he said.  And that’s true.  But I had some time and I wanted to make my kids mashed potatoes.  They don’t get mashed potatoes very often!  So he grilled and I mashed and we shared a sweet meal together to end our day.  Because sometimes, Mother’s Day is all about being a Mom – letting the children help, letting the children bless, letting the children give, and blessing them with your very own brand of nurturing motherhood.

How can you be a blessing to your seedlings today?