Last Friday was my birthday.
If you hadn't heard you should read last week's Dose of Encouragement I'm Too Sexy for this Card and have a laugh.
So because 2 of our kids are living in different countries from us and the third was working at a Christian Youth event all weekend, cards and presents were arriving in the post.
Yes you are probably thinking that I got coffee mugs from all three of them because of today's title but you would be wrong!
Well partly right and partly wrong!
Our oldest son sent me Dvds
because he knows that Fred and I love to relax watching a dvd usually of a mystery or crime series
and both our sons love this series so they want to get us to love it too.
Our second son sent me a Taster Set of 5 bags of coffee
because he knows how much I enjoy my coffee and he and his brother enjoy trying out new coffees too and they know I'll always share.
(I know you are thinking - this is leading up to the mugs now because coffee and mugs go together)
No not yet!
I think this is the point when I should mention that Fred also bought me a present but it was quickly returned.
Due to the fact that HIS idea of what indoor plant I would like was nowhere near MY idea of what I wanted to put in our house.
All because he knows I like the colour Blue! (I've also blogged about that HERE)
But then our daughter's present was
(drum roll)
a mug.
Look at that happy face!
That is the face I had for the dvds and the bags of coffee as well.
But not the face I had for the plant.
Fred did not hear the happy voice and thank you's that the kids heard about their presents.
No he got a
"I can't believe you bought me that thing"
face and voice.
You see it was obvious to me that he had just gone into the supermarket (3 mins drive from our house) to get something and spotted the plant and decided to buy it because he did not have a gift for me.
Now in all fairness to me, Fred had asked me what I wanted for my birthday a couple of months ago and I said I wanted to go away for a few days. He had agreed but things don't always go as planned and he had his bout with food poisoning and two trips abroad with work and then was again not feeling too good so there had been no trip in the end.
And that plant was not a good enough substitute: given that I didn't like it and it was too big to put anywhere in the house.
All I could say was:
Look at the mug Linda sent me.
It suits me exactly.
She knows what I like.
She pays attention when I say something.
You see a few weeks ago I had noticed that two of my mugs were getting rather faded and it was hard to read what was written on them
 |
| The one on the left says MUM & the one on the right says MOTHER |
I mentioned about the mugs saying that the mum and mother were very faded so perhaps it would soon be time to get a replacement one with grandma on it (hint, hint) and Linda immediately thought that she would get me a mug to replace these ones.
Well she told me later that she had to get me one with mother on it as she wasn't in the position to get me one with Grandma yet.
Linda also designed the mug herself.
Not only did the mug have Mother on it but it had butterflies and they were blue - my favourite colour! - but of course you know that by now.
If you didn't know that I love butterflies then you should read "I was Going to Miss the Butterflies"
If you could see closer in to the picture of me with the mug you would also see that there is something else written on the other side of the mug.
Mother knows best.
And oh did I think that I did!
But I was wrong.
Because the next day I discovered that Fred had been planning to get me something else all along
It was exactly what I had wanted but I had not asked for it.
He had been listening to me when I talked about this months ago.
I told him that he shouldn't have kept it a secret so I wouldn't have been annoyed at him.
But he didn't see it like that.
He saw it as a surprise for me not a secret.
He knew I would love it.
Nothing to do with BLUE or with MUGS.
Nothing to do with BLUE or with MUGS.
How many times do we think we know what is happening?
How many times do we think we know best because of our view of a situation?
How many times do we get it wrong?
How many times do we look back on something and realise that God was planning something that we could not see, or that we could not understand because we did not see what He saw or know what He knew.
We don't know everything; only God does.
We don't know what is best; only God does.
How many times do we turn to Him with the wrong attitude and ask why something hasn't happened yet?
How many times do we think we know the best time and way for our prayers to be answered?
How many times do we think He wasn't listening to us?
I am guilty of all of this as well as the attitude I took on my birthday.
Are there any of us who are not guilty of behaving like this toward God at times?
Thankfully God is ready to forgive our attitudes just like Fred was ready to forgive mine.
