Happy Moments!

Cracked Pots

Once there was a man who carried water every day from a stream to his house.
He carried it in two large pots hung on each end of a pole slung across his neck.
He called them his "wonderful pots."
One pot was perfect. It was always full of water at the end of the long walk from the stream.
The other pot was cracked. It leaked, and always arrived at the house only half full.
One day by the stream it spoke to the man.
"I am ashamed of myself," it said.
"Why?" the man asked.
"Water leaks out the crack in my side all the way back to your house," the pot said.
"Because I'm not perfect, you can't bring home two full pots of water. I'm a failure, just a cracked pot."
"You should not feel that way." the man said.
"You are not a failure. You are a wonderful pot. And, you can prove it to yourself.
"As we return to the house today, look carefully alongside the path. When we get home, tell me what you saw."
All the way home, the cracked pot paid attention to everything he saw.
At home the man asked, "What did you see?"
"Flowers," said the cracked pot. "I saw lots of flowers."
"Yes you did. Aren't they beautiful?"
"Yes," said the pot. "But, once again, half the water I was carrying leaked out. I'm sorry."
"There is no need to be sorry," said the man. "Tell me, did you notice where the flowers were growing?"
"Well, yes," he said, a little puzzled. "They were only on my side of the path, but not on the other side. Why is that?"
"For all these years," the man said, "I have planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day as we walked back from the stream..."
"Ohhhhhhhh!" the pot interrupted, shaking with excitement. "I watered the seeds through the crack in my side, and the seeds sprouted and the flowers bloomed, and..."
"Yesssss," said the man, who was as excited as the pot.
"Because you are the way you are, everyone in the village can decorate their homes with beautiful flowers.

"Each of us is a cracked pot in one way or another." he said.
"But there is still no limit to the beauty God can create through us.
"From that day on, the cracked pot knew just how wonderful it really was.

Mother's Day

I got the best Mother's Day presents, which is PRESENCE! It is true that once your children

are grown, the best thing they can do for you is be with you. We all live so close that there's that tendency to take each other for granted. My girls and I talk every day. And, grandkids spend the night often. But to have a day where we are together and visiting is very nice.

I miss my mother and Danny's mother - if you still have your mother you are a fortunate person. Ours are in heaven and we can't wait to see them again!

Mothers and children teach a lot about love. I love the quote "To have a child is to forever have your heart go walking outside your body." It is so true! I remember thinking, as Danny and I had our children young - we'll have them and they'll grow up and be on their own and we'll have our life back! haha Those babies are now adults and although they were once on our toes, they are indelibly on our heart forever.

Being a parent is the most wonderful and terrible thing you will ever do.

Mothering is not for the selfish of heart.

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. ~Abraham Lincoln

Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. ~Honoré de Balzac

The formative period for building character for eternity is in the nursery. The mother is queen of that realm and sways a scepter more potent than that of kings or priests. ~Author Unknown

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving

A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all. ~Washington Irving