Good Gifts

Matthew 7:11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.


This verse kept popping in my mind over the last few weeks. Saturday was Brody's 5th birthday and this year I really struggled over the gift. Last year, we didn't even buy gifts, we just decided that the party and the cake were a lot to do and explained that to both boys. Well, this year since we are in a new place we were putting new plans in place. I wanted to take the boys each a on a train ride for their birthdays but that fell through. Then I had this totally brilliant idea to get Brody a little cage pet such as a guinea pig or hamster since he can't have a real sheep. Bryan and I went to Petsmart and he was not the least bit interested in that idea. I even tried to bring it up at home later on in the week and he still would only say he wanted a sheep. He did say once..."We can get a monkey, but then we would need 5000 bananas." So, there went that idea. I thought and thought and spent hours on the internet, then we decided to just take him to a toy store and see what else interests him. I do have to show what was on his birthday list....nothing but sheep. For some reason we were really hoping to get him something different, after all he does have a lot of sheep. Now, don't get me wrong, he LOVES all his sheep and takes great care of them, but we couldn't help but think he might be missing something else that he would really love.

Well, as a backup, I called the toy store ahead of time and asked if they had a black sheep, which he really wanted, and they did. He did walk around the store and found things that interested him, but when he spotted a puppet lamb and a black sheep puppet, that was it. The passion and excitement when he found these were undeniable. So, I sent them down the aisle, and was real sneaky to purchase them both and hid them in a shopping bag under my purse. Then we saw a whole lot of sheep and lambs and Bath & Body works and I managed to sneak one of those too! After talking to my dad that night, I realized he changed his mind about getting him a new sheepie shirt which was a big one so I set out to find that too. I spent a more time online searching for the right design only to realize I could not get his size! I was successful in tracking down a local shop that had one transfer of a sheep and all different sizes of shirts. So, the next day we were off to the store for the mystery errand, and I was just praying for that one transfer to be cute. Well, it was and they made it up right there for me and I got it out to the car without them knowing a thing! This is what I ended up with for the gift from mommy and daddy...

Somehow I just didn't feel like it was enough and I don't know why. Then we were driving home from picking up the cake and Brody said to me, "mommy my cake is an awesome present too". I just love how grateful he was for everything he got. I could of given him one of the three and he would of been thrilled with it. He was running around later in the morning after opening his presents and out of the blue he calls me and says, "thanks for the sheepie shirt". This experience has just been such a reminder of how much God loves me and wants to give me good things because I know how desperately I wanted to give my little boy something special. I wanted him to know how much he is loved and how wonderful he is. My gift has no lasting value but what God offers us is so much more. Now I want to show more gratitude and be as thankful as my little boy turned out to be at just 5 years old.

Thank you for the reminder Brody and Happy Birthday!