Recently a blog post by Lisa-Jo Baker, author of Surprised By Motherhood, caught my eye. The title of this particular post – How Not To Be Disappointed This Mother’s Day. In this article Lisa-Jo discusses what we as mothers EXPECT; her point on Motherhood being more than a 24 hour period once a year is made clear. She offers eleven ideas to celebrate and honor Mother’s Day by giving to others without the expectation of receiving. Lisa-Jo ends with “Because the thing is, we mother because we’re called to it. We mother because it’s a gift. We mother because God trusted us with these kids. We mother because we can’t not.”
This article really had me thinking. Thinking of the moments I had been disappointed without realizing that what I was really doing was putting an expectation on someone, some thing, or some day. Years ago I read The Five Love Languages and discovered my first love language is quality time and my secondary language is acts of service. So therefore I naturally want to give others those things that I like to receive sometimes forgetting to consider their love language and how they might like to receive a gift. Without fail my little guy and I make a homemade creation for my husband each holiday. In my love language time equates to love therefore it is important to me to teach my little guy this type of giving.
While my husband is a perfect match for me and pretty amazing at a lot of things he’s not so much the “sit down and create something crafty with a three year old type”. He’s more of a “little blue boxes create smiles so I’m on my way to Tiffany’s after bath time the night before the gift is needed type”. Thanks to Lisa-Jo Baker’s blog I decided to take matters into my own hands this Mother’s Day. One day this past week when the time of the day arrived in which I teach my sweet boy a little something & we create with our hands I announced to him that on this day we were going to make his Momma something. We discussed Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and how we give love, hugs, kisses and hand made creations. And to my delight he was all-in! He immediately responded “My make you a ‘fow-yer’! A purple ‘fow-yer’ and ‘well-wo’ sun!! Pwease momma.” (He sometimes refers to himself as “my”.)
We started with a white sheet of card stock that my tot painted blue with a paintbrush. After his nap when the blue paint had dried he used his knuckles and fingertips to create a yellow sun, his finger tips to splotch a stem, “weaves”, & grass, and his hand to create my purple flower. It’s beautiful. My first “homemade for me (by my youngest son) creation.” I framed it! I love how enthusiastically my little guy agreed to give to his momma. I love the act of love & time we shared creating it, and I love the smile on my tot’s face and the sincerity in his voice when he announced “All done! Momma woves purple fow-yers.” He’s right. I love my Mother’s Day gift. Though the real gift in all of this is that I was chosen to be his & his “Bubby’s” momma and that is the greatest gift I will ever receive.
Happy Mother’s Day to you, and to all Mommas and Step Moms, Adopted Moms, Grandmas, Deployed Mommys & Mr Moms, Mothers-in-Law, Aunties and Surrogate Moms, and to all Women who Nurture. I hope that you know and feel love on Mother’s Day and everyday.
– T
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