Letters to You...

This has been a long and busy weekend. I have had a headache for most of the day today and I am exhausted, ready to fall into bed with the girls after our Harry Potter chapter and spelling word study session is over. So, we angrily read about Professor Umbridge's new Educational Decree, read through Emerson's words of the week, and I kiss them goodnight and roll over staring into the darkness. I wait for the sound of their steady breathing as they quickly drift off to sleep. And then I wearily pull myself out of bed to start the chores of a single mom with two little girls who all have school and/or work tomorrow. Meal prep happened yesterday which made putting lunches together much easier than usual. Amelia is getting hot lunch. Emerson needs cold lunch and she also needs dinner. She has gymnastics and I have a board meeting which means Emerson will need to eat dinner in the car on her way to the gym with Pa. Ugh...I don't feel like I'm winning any mom of the year trophies here. Our schedules are so tightly packed sometimes I don't know how we're going to get it all fit in there. 

So, while standing over the peanut butter and jelly sandwich thinking about how life might flow better, my mom guilt kicks in. So busy at seven years old! I'll leave my house in the morning at 7:30 to head to my job and won't see my girl again until I pick her up at the gymnastics center at 8:00, just in time for a quick car snack, more Harry Potter, another dose of the spelling list and tuck them into bed to start it all over again. 

So, I tear off a napkin, grab a Sharpie, and scrawl out the following: I then immediately burst into tears. It seems so superficial. Conveying my love on a flimsy chunk of napkin. But then I also remember the tears in my eyes when I was little and would find a note in my lunchbox from my mama. It wasn't superficial to that little girl with the Laura Ingals braids. I loved them. Treasured them. I used to store them in my pencil box at school until I couldn't fit any more in. My mama loved me. She cared about me. She wanted me to think about her in the middle of the day. My tears tonight were a mixture of feeling sad and missing the days of summer when I could take care of my own kids rather than other people's kids but also a measure of immense love. As I read my note back to myself my love for Emerson filled my heart so full I thought it would burst! I love my daughters so very much. And the marker ink on that napkin couldn't even contain all of that love. 

What if God wrote us love notes? What if we opened our lunch boxes to find scrawled messages of love and pride from our Heavenly Father. "Tammy, I love you soooo much. You are my rock star! I am so proud of you! Love, Father God" Does that seem silly? Superficial? I don't think so. God doesn't exactly operate that way. He doesn't write us messages or words on a napkin. But, He does leave us love notes everywhere! When your eyes and ears are open to Him, you will soon see that God leaves us messages everywhere. I hear His voice when I am still and just sit in His presence. I see His love notes on the wings of the eagle as it soars over my property. The flowers that sway in the breeze are filled with words of pride for us. His voice whispers that He loves us in the swirling wind. I can hear His kindness and compassion in the giggles of my girls as they run and play together. I hear His forgiveness in the words of prayers from my prayer partner. God writes us love notes. And they are just as meaningful to me as that napkin note will be to Emerson tomorrow when she unzips her lunchbox. 

God loves us so! He's never too busy for us and He shows us how much He loves us in the everyday. His love notes are placed everywhere, just waiting for us to come upon them and realize that they are from Him. So, pause and be still and wait on the Lord! He is there, with messages of love and faith and hope and peace. Think about what His message to you would say! Insert your name into the note I scrawled above and picture it being YOUR message from God! 

God loves you soooo much! You are His rock star! And He is so proud of you!

Amen!