Feeding and Nurturing the Young

Have you ever spotted birds at work feeding their young? I have several times since I like to watch and photograph birds when I get a chance.

When we visited my parents one Memorial Weekend over a decade ago, I got to observe a particular bird’s parenting skills over and over. Mom and Dad lived in Missouri then and had a couple of birdhouses on their property. Bluebirds had built a nest in one. I hoped to share a picture of the daddy bird’s parenting prowess (he was easiest to spot because of his bright blue color), but darn it all, the shot is too blurry to use here on the blog.

This daddy blue bird took his responsibility very seriously. He worked tirelessly to feed his little namesakes. Time and again he’d come flying in from a distance to land atop the bird house and rest a moment before scooting through the little hole to where his young ones waited. Within seconds, he was out again, taking only a minute’s reprieve before he was off scouting more food. He was a dedicated parent.

Have you spotted anyone feeding the young lately? You may be in the midst of feeding the young at your very own house—and I’m not just talking physical sustenance. As parents, we need to feed our children spiritually, too. Even when our kids are grown and gone, we still have opportunities to pour truth into their lives and eventually into our grandchildren’s lives.

Have we in the past or are we currently filling our kids’ or grandkids’ hearts and minds with the Word of God as we “sit at home and when [we] walk along the road” (Deuteronomy 6:7)? Have we exposed them to the spiritual teaching available in our churches?

We can also help nurture and feed other young ones besides those in our own families. Think of all the children in your circle of influence. Consider also the spiritually young, those who have only recently come to faith. They need us who are more mature in the faith to take our responsibility seriously. They need us to work tirelessly to help them grow and become strong in the Lord.

Let’s demonstrate some parenting prowess. Let’s be faithful to feed the young.

“Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.” Psalm 34:11 NIV

*How are you feeding the young in your circle of influence?

*The next issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, comes out in early February. One lucky subscriber (new or current) will receive a $15 gift card to Starbucks and a signed copy of my book to use personally, give as a gift, or donate to a library. Sign-up is free! Temporary problem with Life Notes sign-up. To sign up, just contact me.

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride and also my Wedding Inspiration cards, check out my Books/My Work page.

*Flickr photo by Sister72, Creative Commons License

Wedding Guest Book Photo Booth Idea

Mother of the Bride, is your daughter looking for something fun or especially memorable to do instead of a traditional wedding guest book? Here is an idea that may just be an answer to her bride-to-be prayers: a guest book featuring photo booth photos of your wedding guests!

A photo booth wedding guest book provides not only a super fun visual record of those attending the wedding, but it gives the guests a chance to include a personal message as well. As opposed to the formal feel of the traditional sign-your-name-on-the-line-provided guest book we usually see at weddings, a photo booth guest book takes on an almost yearbook feel. Fun and memorable!

Photo booths for reception fun are great, too, as they allow the guests to take memories home with them, but the photo booth for the wedding guest book will be for the benefit of the bride and groom.

The bride and groom are so distracted on the big day (imagine that!) that many times they don’t have solid memories of those who attended. After the newlyweds have returned from their honeymoon and things have calmed down a bit, the photo booth guest book will allow them to review who was in attendance and to notice details they may have missed on their wedding day.

So go ahead and mention this clever guest book idea to your daughter, MOB. She may decide it’s one of your best ideas yet!

*You might also like to read Providing Photo Booth Fun for Wedding GuestsWedding Guest Book Ideas, and Guest Book Idea: A Guest Tree.

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride check out my Books/My Work page.

*The next issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, comes out in early November. One lucky subscriber will receive a $15 gift card to Starbucks and a signed copy of my book to use personally, give as a gift, or donate to a library. Sign-up is free! *Temporary problem with Life Notes sign-up. To sign up, just contact me.

*Flickr Photo by paperladyinvitesCreative Commons License

A Mother of the Bride’s Prayer of Thanksgiving

May this Mother of the Bride’s Prayer of Thanksgiving help you express to God what’s in your heart this year, dear MOB!

Dear Lord,

My heart is filled with thanksgiving this year as I help my precious daughter prepare for her wedding. These are once-in-a-lifetime days, and I’m so grateful to be sharing such an exciting journey with her. Thank you, Lord, for granting us this amazing time together.

Father, as I see my sweet girl take on this new role of bride-to-be and soon-to-be wife, my heart swells afresh with love for her. Not only has she grown into a beautiful woman, she has become a funny, smart, kind, and loving person. I am so very proud of her and I thank you, Lord, for allowing me the great privilege of being her mom.

And how can I ever thank you for bringing such a fine young man into her life to be the love of her life and share the rest of her days with her? I pray that you’ll draw them even closer to one another in these months preceding their wedding. Help them form a bond that nothing will ever break, and help them to always look to you and desire to honor you in their marriage and in all that they do.

Lord, help me to be a mother of the bride who is truly helpful and encouraging in every way. Help me to be the support that my daughter needs now and help me to develop a sweet and loving relationship with my soon-to-be son-in-law. I pray I will be a mother they can always count on and a friend who will walk with them through whatever the future may hold. Help me to be a blessing to them, Lord!

Yes, Lord, my heart is filled with thanksgiving this year. How I thank and praise you!

“The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” Psalm 126:3 NIV

*You might also like to read Spirit and Soul Refreshment for the Mother of the Bride. And from my home page, you might like A Prayer for Couples You Know.

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride and also my Wedding Inspiration cards, check out my Books/My Work page.

*The new issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter with a giveaway in every regularly scheduled issue, came out Nov. 2nd. It’s not too late to receive it. Sign-up is free and to the right! (If you’re on a mobile device, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click View Full Site to find it.) Temporary problem with Life Notes sign-up. To sign up, just contact me.

*Flickr photo by JFXieCreative Commons License

Thanksgiving in Simpler Times

As I watched my kids’ eyes glaze over from too many video games one Thanksgiving years ago, I recalled my childhood Thanksgivings and realized how lucky I was. We celebrated the holiday at my grandparents’ farm in the days before video games, satellite dishes, streaming devices, computers, and iPhones. As a result, I now have priceless memories of Thanksgiving in simpler times.

Our celebration bordered on a full-blown family reunion for my dad’s side of the family. Grandma especially treasured Thanksgiving because it was her holiday. She always had the dinner at her house, and everyone knew it. It was tradition.

The excitement of Thanksgiving Day started on the drive over to Grandpa and Grandma’s. When we turned off the highway onto the country road, I knew we were almost there. The familiar words “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go” had special meaning to me because they echoed my own experience.

Each year as we reached the farmhouse lane, I wondered which cousins would be there to play with that day. We would have adventures for sure because there were always adventures to be had on the farm. With a little imagination, the lane became a dangerous road filled with wild creatures, rushing rivers, or deep gullies to cross. And cousins made it all the more exiting.

Sometimes we arrived early so my dad could go hunting with the men. He kept his bird dog Cindy on the farm, and she always went wild with excitement when she saw us. The men must have had great times on those hunts together because each time they came back talking, laughing, and poking each other with their elbows like they knew something the rest of us didn’t.

Meanwhile, we all feasted on the heavenly aromas that drifted out of Grandma’s kitchen. The smell of roast turkey, noodles cooking on the stove, and homemade rolls baking in the oven tantalized our taste buds.

When dinner was finally ready, Grandma called us to the kitchen where we gathered for the Thanksgiving blessing. Grandpa called on one of the men to pray, and what a prayer it would be. Our family had a deep Christian heritage and much to be thankful for, especially our Savior Jesus. On other days when Grandpa didn’t pass the privilege on to someone else, I loved to hear him pray. His heart was so full he almost always shed a tear or two when he gave thanks to his Lord.

Not only did our family know how to pray, we knew how to eat! Confident that all of our favorite foods would be there, we filled our plates from the vast array of delectable dishes covering the kitchen counter and stove.

Everything was made from scratch. Packaged noodles, rolls, and ready-made pie crusts were unheard of in our family. Just about every kind of pie known to man tempted us that day—and they were divine. Pumpkin pie was a certainty along with the mincemeat pie Grandma made especially for my dad, but we also got to choose from apple, cherry, lemon meringue, chocolate, coconut cream, and sometimes blackberry or peach. What a difficult decision! The adults usually tried slivers of several different kinds, but I had to have a whole piece. I didn’t like skinny pieces, and neither did the other kids.

The adults ate dinner in the dining room while we kids sat in the kitchen, but that was fine with us. We didn’t want to stick around for the boring conversation after dinner anyway. And we definitely wanted to be busy by clean-up time. We really didn’t have to worry about that, though, because the women seemed to fight for the chance to wash and dry the dishes. I didn’t understand that until I got older.

Since my grandparents didn’t have a television at that time, football didn’t dominate the afternoon. The grown-ups did lots of talking, and the kids did lots of playing and acting silly in general.

If the weather was bad, we played in the basement, which was home to a scary looking coal-eating furnace, Grandma’s washer, a bed, and shelves filled with jars of food from Grandma’s summer canning. We also had room for roughhousing and riding the little John Deere tractor Grandpa kept for us. The basement reverberated with our noise, and before long one of our parents would materialize out of nowhere and try to quiet us. Since that only seemed to work for a few minutes, everyone always hoped for good weather.

When the weather was good, we knew we could count on Grandpa to go outdoors with us. Tramping around the farm with him and listening to all his tall tales was pure heaven. Sometimes we played hide and seek in the barn or got real daring and walked the rafters. I was scared to death to do the things my country cousins dared me to do. I grew up in town and felt as if I was risking my life most of the time.

Grandpa also let us feed the chickens, help milk the cows, and chase the wild kittens that lived in abundance around the barn. He loved us and always made our visits fun.

Thanksgiving was a great day in the life of our family. I’ll be forever grateful, not only for my loved ones, but also for treasured memories of Thanksgiving in simpler times. And now? As I share these memories with my kids and grandkids, their simple country heritage will live on. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord!

“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 NIV

*What aspects of your Thanksgiving celebrations are you especially thankful for?

*The new issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter with a giveaway in every regularly scheduled issue, came out early this month. It’s not too late to receive it. Sign-up is free and to the right! (If you’re on a mobile device, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click View Full Site to find it.) Temporary problem with Life Notes sign-up. To sign up, just contact me.

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride and also my Wedding Inspiration cards, check out my Books/My Work page.

Photo by Ali Gooya on Unsplash

Father-Daughter Dance Songs for Weddings

Mother of the Bride, can you guess what one of your most emotional moments will be on your daughter’s big day? If you guessed the Father-Daughter dance, you guessed right.

When your little-girl-turned-bride and her daddy take to the dance floor on wedding day, you might just come undone. Years of memories will flood your heart, and you’ll feel like you’re out there on the dance floor with them giving her away one final time. You may even feel like it’s your last hurrah as the most important family members in her life, but instead, try to see it as a wonderful tribute to all the love you’ve shared over the years.

To help your family prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime moment, here’s a list of great song possibilities for this special tribute dance. Run them past your husband and daughter and see which ones they’re drawn to. They may want to find the songs online and listen to them together. Another great memory in the making. Enjoy!

“In My Life” – the Beatles
“You Send Me” – Sam Cooke
“The Way You Look Tonight” – Frank Sinatra or Steve Tyrell
“Come Fly With Me” – Frank Sinatra
“My Girl” – The Temptations
“Isn’t She Lovely” – Stevie Wonder
“Unforgettable” – Natalie Cole with Nat King Cole
“Cinderella” – Steven Curtis Chapman
“My Wish” – Rascal Flatts
“What a Wonderful Life” – Louis Armstrong
“Butterfly Kisses” – Bob Carlisle
“How Sweet It Is” – James Taylor
“My Little Girl” – Tim McGraw
“Times of Your Life” – Paul Anka
“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” – Stevie Wonder
“I Loved Her First” – Heartland
“It Had to Be You” – Ray Charles
“Daughters” – John Mayer
“You Are So Beautiful” – Joe Cocker
“Daddy Dance With Me” – Krystal Keith

For now, MOB, get your hankie ready. I have a feeling you may need it. And that’s okay. The tears will just be love flowing from your eyes.

*You might also like to read Wedding Day First Dance Photo—Show Off Her Rings!, Budget Agreement with the Father of the Bride, and Guest List Help: Don’t Forget the Father of the Bride.

*For info about my book Mother of the Bride and also my Wedding Inspiration cards, check out my Books/My Work page.

*The current issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter with a giveaway in every regularly scheduled issue, came out earlier this month. It’s not too late to receive it. Sign-up is FREE and to the right! (If you’re on a mobile device, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click View Full Site to find it.) *Temporary problem with Life Notes sign-up. To sign up, just contact me.

*Flickr photo by Barry.Lenard, Creative Commons License