I know it has been a while since I posted. Life kind of took over. But it's the beginning of a new year and I have a lot of my mind so I thought I would give it a go.
Two days ago was my oldest daughter, Lyndsey's 4th birthday. It was a great day! We celebrated in style! She picked all of her favorites - breakfast, family activities, dinner, cake, movie, everything! It was such a wonderful day. We sang Happy Birthday every chance we got! Everyone was in a good mood and fun family memories were made.
Today is my youngest daughter, Catelyn's 2nd birthday She and her sister are 2 years and 2 days apart. The plan was the same... celebrate in style! Only today... Catelyn would get to pick her favorites. Breakfast started out fine but everything went downhill from there. Lyndsey was horrible. She was so whiny and demanding. She was mean and bossy. Everything Catelyn picked, Lyndsey complained about. Catelyn kept trying to make Lyndsey happy - over and over again. Catelyn even basically gave Lyndsey one of her birthday presents and still Lyndsey wasn't happy. We went on a family adventure and Lyndsey continued to not be any fun to be around. I talked to Lyndsey over and over to try and get her to be nice and be the loving sister I know her to be. She would apologize and then go right back to just being mean to Catelyn. Lyndsey tried to ruin Catelyn's special day at every turn, yet Catelyn kept loving on Lyndsey and trying to make her smile. My patience were running very thin. Honestly... nap time couldn't come soon enough!
I put them both down for a much needed nap... let's face it... mommy needed a time out and some chocolate.
About an hour into their nap our baby monitors alerted so I brought up the feed. And that's when I saw it. Catelyn crawling into Lyndsey's bed and cuddling up with her sleeping sister. Lyndsey never woke up but Catelyn didn't seem to mind. She just snuggled in with Lyndsey and went back to sleep.
As I sat here enjoying the quite time I started thinking about Catelyn's love of her sister... so unwavering... so faithful... so simple... so pure. Catelyn doesn't care how Lyndsey treats her or what Lyndsey demands or what is going on around them. She just loves Lyndsey for who she is right where she is.
(Not the best picture but if you look you can see C snuggled up with L)
I wish I loved like Catelyn. I guess I wish we all could or did. Not just love our children like that... I mean we do. Or at least I do. I love Lyndsey - always and forever. But man was I mad at her for her behavior today. But I wish we all had that ever forgiving, unwavering, simple love that Catelyn seems to have. I wish we had it for our families, for our friends, for our neighbors, for our community, our country, our world. I wish we all had that no-questions-asked kind of love.
And on that note I am so thankful and blessed that God does have that kind of love. He is that kind of love. I do believe He gets angry and has emotions. I do believe He gets frustrated and tries to provide us with guidance if we would only listen and obey. But God loves us with an unwavering, faithful, simple love. A love that is always there for us. And even when we act like terrible toddlers, He is there, loving us and wanting to snuggle up to us and let us know we aren't alone. Thank goodness our God is love - that kind of pure love. It is in this knowledge that I rejoice today and everyday!
As I hear the girls start to stir... I need to remind anyone reading this of something very important. You are loved! You are loved by God in a pure, unwavering, ever-faithful way.... even if you've had a season like Lyndsey had this morning!
