“Mama, I NEED the glue stick,” my daughter hollered from the kitchen table.
“Mommm…she took my sticker. I wanted the big heart,” whined Big Brother.
I remember standing at the sink, looking out on a yard that needed cutting and toys scattered in the driveway. Hands in hot suds, I sighed and wished away the irritation. Couldn’t the little people in the other room just get along? Did they have to argue about everything? This was supposed to be a fun Valentine’s Day craft.
We are GOING to feel the LOVE.
Like it or not.
I hurried to finish the task before Big Brother decided to give someone a hair cut with the sissors. What was I thinking, leaving three kids out of sight with scissors and glue?
Even for a moment?
Maybe you’ve been there–that place where the nitty-gritty and messiness of being human barges in on our Norman Rockwell moments.
This is where love lives.
I joined the kids at the table, playing referee and refocusing them on the task at hand. We were making placemats for Valentine’s Day and the table was filled with scraps of paper, heart doilies, and stickers. Did someone glue a heart to the wall…?
Taking a deep breath, I smiled, realizing once again, that this is life and it is filled with love…and squabbles over the heart stickers.
“Let me tell you about how God explains love,” I said as I reached for my Bible.
Love is patient
Love is kind…
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end (1 Corinthians 13, The Message).
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails…
And…
Love washes dishes and shares stickers.
Fifteen years later, I still pull out these Valentine’s placemats and remember the fun we had that day long ago when love sat around the table, making treasures with glue sticks and stickers, with just a little arguing on the side.
What’s your favorite Valentine memory?
Making Valentine’s Day crafts with my boys definitely stands out as my best Valentine memories. Today, at 13 & 15, they aren’t into the holiday all that much (no girlfriends allowed), but I like to surprise them with little gifts that remind them of how much I love them.
I love seeing their faces when they still get a surprise as teenagers!
That’s an easy one for me, Ginger. Best Valentine ever came 22 years ago: the birth of my sweet Sarah! Our house overflows with heart decorations 🙂
How sweet–a valentine’s baby girl! I bet you guys have had some special fun with that over the years. Best Valentine Ever:)
Well, perhaps it’s not my favorite but it is the funniest. When we’d lived in far west TX about a year, a huge tumbleweed blew up against our fence. It was a couple days before Valentines Day so I cut out a bunch of pink and purple hearts and stuck them all over it 🙂 I took a picture and used it in one of my Feb 2013 blogs.
I bet that was an unusual sight! Nothing like using what you’ve got to celebrate with!
Ginger,
What a very heart warming post! Also, great pictures. I remember my two daughters when they were old enough to start making cards on their own. They made a card for me for Valentines day and it was wonderful. I still have their cards on my desk at work almost 10 years later. Thanks for such a great post!
Thanks for your encouraging comment. I appreciate it more than you know. Those sweet cards and pictures mean so much. I can remember that before my girls could write, they’d just scribble their message and “read” it to me. So precious!