It is the end of the school year and almost time for my personal favorite season, Summer. Before we can get into relaxing days at the pool and time to sleep in with little to no schedule, we must experience plays, programs, graduations and other events that our children and grandchildren will be involved in.

Our youngest child will be graduating from high school in a few short weeks. We are excited to get to assemble for this event especially as we start to emerge from over a year of chaos with the virus. As our three have grown up, I have often joked about how Mother of the Year is a mythical goal that hangs in the balance. One day you find the toy your child wants for Christmas when there were seemingly none anywhere and you are Mother of the Year. That same day, you get so mad at your child and say something you regret and you are out of the running for Mother of the Year. You were JUST crowned this morning for locating the toy and now you are stripped of your crown. Motherhood is just like that. Ups and downs, crowns to none in a single hour sometimes. I believe that every mother feels like they are getting it all wrong and question if they are doing enough on a daily basis. It is a lot of responsibility to grow a human. Moms, I have a little secret to share with you today.

There are no perfect moms out there. We are all just varying degrees of imperfect. BUT- you are perfect for your kids. Moms are so special. Remarkable. Extraordinary. The picture I posted with this blog was taken by the photographer for Austin Peay State University. It is of my oldest daughter and I think it is a stunning photo. What you don’t know about that photo is that she was looking for me in a sea of people and she spotted me. Her eyes fixated on me and the photographer snapped this not knowing what she was looking at. It became a photo used in advertising for the university because of its magnificence. You see, my daughter wasn’t scanning the crowd looking for the perfect mother, she was looking for HER mother who is perfect for her.

As we wade through this season of events, may we remember as we sit in the stands and hope we did enough, that we are not perfect moms but we are perfect for our children. In their eyes, we are made perfect.

Best Days are Made,
Jennifer

Tulips are so beautiful and a sign of brighter days ahead after the doldrums of winter. I tried to plant tulips once and grew weary of planting the bulbs. I like to consider myself a hospice nurse for growing vegetation because if they can’t live on their own, they will be provided a nice place to transition to their death at my home and on my watch.

One reason I did not like planting tulips is the fact that only one tulip grows from one bulb. How exhausting is that when you must buy a tulip bulb planter apparatus, dig it down the right depth, blah blah blah. As a hospice nurse for plants, I find this to be way too much effort for a plant to die. I can leave the bulbs in the bag on a table and they will die there without all that effort.

I am so glad that God made the effort to plant me where I belong. He did not shy away from the work involved in the exact placement of me where I would bloom best. Even though he knew that only one me would grow in His placement, He still planted me there knowing I would be beautiful there. He also planted others around me so that together, we could bloom and produce an impactful display that we couldn’t do if we bloomed alone.

As time passes, tulips will sometimes multiply and make side bulbs that will bloom another tulip. We can do that same thing as we grow and mature in knowledge, wisdom and love of God and man. We can multiply and make an even better display than we could do alone.

I get frustrated planting bulbs because they are expensive and sometimes a bag of bulbs will include three to five rhizomes. We, like tulips are expensive. We were bought with the blood of Jesus. We were worthless until He appeared and the soul felt it’s worth.

I think we all struggle with feeling important and full of purpose from time to time. In this spring, the time of renewal, may we reestablish our sense of value in this world and know that we are expensive-the Louis Vuitton of humans. The tulips in the spring are we. May we remember that if we bloom where we are planted, we will multiply and create a bigger impact. One person makes a difference. YOU make a difference. Even on your worst day, you are enough.

Best Days are Made
Jennifer
I’d love to come speak at your event!