Y’all know how passionate I am about kindness. I wrote a whole book about it HERE (which you can purchase the hard copy version for 25% off until midnight tonight! WOOHOO! Use code LULU25 – Happy Thanksgiving!!). But the truth is, kindness is the heart of our Father. He tells us about it in the second greatest commandment – which is to love others (Matthew 22:29).
I love using holidays as platforms for kindness, so I picked up an extra large M&M cookie from the bakery at our local grocery store, came home and wrapped it in cellophane.
Then the boys and I cut out feathers, a beak, and a wattle. Or I should say snood, as one of my preschoolers informed me this week. Did you even know that? Snood?! Turkeys just keep getting funnier and funnier.
Noah chose who he wanted to give his cookie to and we set about writing a special message spelled out on each feather for the recipient.
Then I began taping everything to the cookie. This is where it gets good >> after taping the feathers to the back of the cookie, when I flipped the cookie back over, I saw that I had taped the feathers backwards!
Here is evidence that the Lord loves to keep this ever-wandering heart of mine humble. I knew I was going to be sharing this idea on the blog with you dear people, and of course there is always that part of me that wants the craft to turn out Pinterest-perfect so that the photos will be eye-catching and compelling. Messing this up meant that it would be flawed and I didn’t have time or resources to fix it. The flesh part of me that has ridiculously high expectations started to freak out a little.
As I started to moan about my mistake, I caught myself. First, because I had 2 impressionable boys watching, and second, because I realized that it didn’t really matter.
Our turkey isn’t perfect, but he was made with love.
And honestly isn’t that WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT?! Why do we buy into the pressure that the best moments are only the ones that are caught perfectly? I fall for this trick almost every time. And also when I dig down deep into the motives of my heart, I have to ask myself – who am I doing this for anyway? For the praise of man? Or for the glory of God?
The point is to choose love. And not worry about whether or not the feathers make sense or everyone in the universe can be impressed.
In the end, the recipient, who is a former seminary student, loved that the feathers were backwards and thought perhaps we were trying to remind him of his days in Hebrew class because you have to read the Hebrew language backwards too. 🙂
God loves to take our messes and make them beautiful!
Joyfully,
Julie 🙂
Noah is adorable and getting so big! I’ve been following since he was a baby. Thank you for sharing your precious family.
Happy Thanksgiving
I love that it was backward! It is so cute, so REAL and all the more precious for being imperfect. The recipients will get a good giggle out of it. Thank you for sharing your sweet ideas.