Shiny Nickel

 

A friend of mine gave birth to twins a few months ago. They have to be among the cutest girls I have ever seen! There is something about seeing two adorable babies that you can’t help but see a miracle in the process of childbirth. And those two sweet girls really are a miracle. Born just short of 29 weeks after a tumultuous pregnancy, they are healthy three month olds who are growing like weeds!

The other day, my friend commented that the girls have started to smile and how much fun it is to see their happy expressions.

I was thinking about that today. For any new mother who lacks sleep and is in a constant state of exhaustion, it can mean the world to see your baby (or babies!) smile for the first time. I know that when I first saw those newborn smiles in my own children, I began to think, “Hey, you really like me, don’t you?!” and “Maybe all of this waking in the middle of the night is worth something!”

As a mother, I still live for those moments sometimes. I don’t care how old your child is… it still warms the heart when your child decides to smile at you.

We sometimes motivate Jessica (she’s 4) to do things by promising her a “shiny nickel”. Not just any nickel, mind you, a shiny one. It makes all the difference! So it isn’t uncommon, in our house, to hear us telling one of the kids, “If you put all the books on the bookshelf, I’ll give you a shiny nickel!” Or giving them some other menial task that we are too lazy to want to do ourselves.  Sometimes this works… other times, not so much.

Last night I bought a rotisserie chicken from Wegmans for dinner. I sliced it up, threw a bag of frozen vegetables in the microwave and put out the pre-sliced Wegmans dinner bread and voila dinner was served. Love nights like that. And the chicken was delicious even though I had no hand in preparing it. Michael asked for seconds of the chicken which almost never happens so I knew it was a good night for him, too. When dinner was over, he left the table and came back a moment later. He says to me, “Here mom, a shiny nickel because dinner was so good tonight!”

Truth be told, he actually gave me a dime. I’m interpreting that to mean that dinner was worth TWO shiny nickels rather than to believe my 7 year old doesn’t know his coins yet. And I’m choosing to believe that if I had cooked that rotisserie chicken myself, it would have tasted just as good.

Okay so what’s the point of telling you about my friends twin girls and my son’s thanking me for a delicious meal I didn’t prepare?! No matter what form it comes in - a smile from a newborn, or a shiny nickel from a child, a grateful heart is welcome and heartwarming. And we don’t hear the thanks often enough.

I’m on that kick again. I’m here to tell you that your efforts are appreciated! Even if the best you can do today is to give your kids cereal with milk for dinner, you are doing amazing things! We aren’t all called to be Martha Stewart even though we sometimes measure ourselves by that standard (and come up miserably short). Whatever you are doing today, it’s amazing work. The house may be a mess, the laundry may not be done but you are a phenomenal woman who deserves to be recognized for what you ARE doing each and every day.

Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness;  he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

The passage says that God will save us... and sometimes, that is just what I need:

·         “Save me from this mess!”

·         “Save me from kids crying and complaining!”

·         “Save me from having to scrub another toilet!”

But more often than not, what I really need to hear is simply that someone is pleased with what little I have done!

So even if your kids never say thank you for packing their lunch each day… or if nobody seems to notice how a hot dinner made it to the table tonight… or if your hubby doesn’t realize you spent the day cleaning out the fridge, God cares. He REJOICES over you and what you are doing today. He celebrates you with LOUD SINGING. I pray that you can hear His song today. And know you are making a difference, one little life at a time.