Moms and cookies

It appeared to be a fairly straightforward project.
1. Cut flower shapes out of sugar cookie dough.
2   Put onto skewers.
3.  Bake
4.  Decorate
5.  Arrange into bouquets.

Not a problem!
So I cut all the dough into shapes and started inserting the skewers and, uh-o...
The skewers were piercing the dough and, in the thin places, coming out through the dough making the cookies in danger of falling of the stick and the whole thing being ruined! What to do???

One cookie had to make the ultimate sacrifice.

It would not be pretty in the bouquet.
It gave up it's form for function and  was broken into small pieces and given to the other cookies to cover their thin places so they would stand up securely in their place! It was the sacrifice of one for the many!!

And it happens every single day...

As a child I recognized that my mom always got the last and smallest piece of pie, or none at all depending how much was left.  I remember thinking even then, that I didn't know how I could ever be a mom because I couldn't do that.

And then I became a parent...
And like every parent, in thousands of ways through the years, I've given up my time or agenda, sleep or schedule, and my pie!

And although sometimes, honestly, it is frustrating to be constantly called on to give, it's what you do because "greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" John 15:13. The reference here is obviously to Jesus going to the cross to die for our sins so that we may be made children of  God (John 1:12), but I've realized it means more than that.

When we love we give up our lives.
Not our life as in dying for someone, but the one thing that makes up life, our time.
We give up our whole, able to do exactly what we want to do when we want to do it life, to break off pieces of ourselves to give to others.
For when you give someone your time, you have given them your life.

Every time there has been a middle of the night feeding, story read, shoe tied, meal made, homework supervised, ride to practice, school play cheering, field trip chaperoning, wet washcloths for fever soothing, listening to their day, buying their shoes and helping them find their strengths and place in the world, you have given a piece of your life to make theirs better.

Here's to you Mom - for all you do and who you are - one freshly made cookie bouquet!