Thursday, January 7, 2010

The Loving Guilted Lunches


This story begins about 3 weeks ago during our Relief Socity lesson. The lesson being taught was from David A Bednar's General Conference talk More Diligent and Concerned at Home.
Need a refresher? Click Here


We were discussing ways that we can show more love at home. Everyone was giving great suggestions and then Eden raises her hand and talks about for her daughter when she makes her lunch, she wraps her treat up and seals it with a sticker that she knows her daughter would adore. It was a small and simple gesture however has made an impact on her daughter. As her daughter was leaving to spend time without Eden and with her family in another city, she requested that her mother send her with a treat with one of her special stickers. Eden was over joyed that her daughter noticed her small gesture of love.


I was so touched by Eden's story. I wanted a treat that was sealed with my favorite sticker. I came this close to asking Eden (with puppy dog eyes) to make me a treat with my favorite sticker.


It could have worked!


Then I thought of Shaeler. I wanted to give my daughter a treat with her favorite sticker.


This is the part of the story, where the scene gets hazy and we flashback to when I was a child.


}}}}}}}}}}}}


As a child, I made my lunch everyday from 1st Grade through Junior High. Knowing my independent self and wanting to be like my sister, I probably told my mom that I could handle making my own lunch, for pete's sake I was a grown woman. First grade is pretty much the real world, right? Right?


By the time I hit the 4th grade, I absolutely LOATHED making my lunch everyday. At this age, buying a hot lunch was not an option. For some reason the kids that bought hot lunch were either poor or nerdy. Hey I didn't label it that way, it was just the reputation that was going around. Hot lunch was not an option!!


When I finally reached the age that I no longer had to make my lunch but could drive to a fast food joint and eat, I swore I would never make another lunch for the rest of my life.


When I married Brian, he tried to get me to make his lunches for him for work because that was what his mother did for him. I explained to him my oath of no more lunch making and he would not give in. He finally gave up when I made him a Pink Eye Sandwich. Yup, it is exactly as it sounds, and thats a post for another day because it is infamous in our home.


When Shaeler started school, the lifetime oath came up again. Do I make her lunch or at her school they offer a lunch program through lunchboxers.com and she eats from there? A very nice lunch system and very reasonable in price. So, I explained to Shaeler that her lunch would be waiting for her at school.


Fast forward to my Relief Society lesson and Eden talking about the special treat. Oh, there was nothing more that I wanted to give Shae than a small daily gesture that her mother loves her.


So, Shae and I sat down and I asked her if she wanted me to make her lunches for her? She said yes and started rambling off some of the things she would like to eat that I could make from home and she also requested to contiue to eat some of the things that lunchboxers provides. I caved and promised Shae that I would make her lunch on the days that she didn't like what was on the menu. Shae was overjoyed.


Eden's story broke my oath and I am good with it.


To follow up, I have made two loving guilted lunches and each one has had a special treat with a sticker placed on it. I see Shae's smile when she see's one of the stickers on the outside of her lunch bag. Her smile brings me great joy! The reason I share this story with you is because 1. Never say never and 2. Sometimes we have to break out of our comfort zones to love somebody the way they want to be loved.


I challenge all who read this post today, to go out and make a small gesture of love to someone in your life. I promise, you will be an instrament for the Savior!


PS - I made Shae a tuna fish sandwich this morning and gave the cat the can to lick. Saraphina didn't want a thing to do with the can and I could hear cat jaws dropping and headshakes from the cats all over the world.

9 comments:

Queen "B" said...

Aloha,
first I want to say that loving someone the way they want to be loved is excellent, you might enjoy reading "The 5 Love Languages" Barnes and Noble, Christian section, but written by a counselor, very kool book, and your lunch memoirs reminded me of 5th grade and My Dad thought he would surprise me and spray paint his old metal lunch box PINK for me. The menu for the next day was tuna fish sandwich...mmmm, what I didn't expect was the paint fumes from the box to be absorbed into the sandwich, eeewwwww, since I am 46, you can tell it was permanent damage to me in my lunch box diary, anyway, I sure could of used a sticker that day!! lol...good for you and I love the sweet sister in RS, what would life be like without them? they are my favorite women,
enjoyed my visit, Mahalo and Aloha
Brandi

heather said...

I like it. :)

I was watching this past women's conference on the BYU channel & at some point in the talk it said something along the lines of "Show your love for your husband by cooking for him."

And then Hubby who was in the kitchen & I didn't realize was listening came in and said, "Hey, can you rewind that last part? I want to make sure you heard it!"

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JENNIFRO said...

This was nice. I think it's wonderful you're willing to make that sacrifice. I know how hard it is to do something that goes against your grain, but that you realize will probably be worth it later on. Well done. Good reminder!

JENNIFRO said...

P.S. Great comment about the cats of the world!

Miss Megan said...

My mom used to put post-it notes in our lunches quite often (every day would probably spoil the treat) and it always made my day. It was just one way she showed that she loved me, and it was always needed during a particularly hard day. I have tried to be good about thank you notes and post-its for Mike (sometimes it is nothing more than an I love you in lipstick on our bathroom mirror. Good luck with your homemade lunch/sticker endeavor, and thanks for sharing!

Joyce Jones said...

I am proud of your flexibilty Suzie. Our family gets in trouble with rigid rules and high expectations of being able to follow through on them. Yeah for you!!

CB said...

"Sometimes you have to break out of your comfort zone and love somebody the way they want to be loved". That is the quote of 2010!! It is going on my blog - I hope you don't mind. It is not only brilliant, but SO true!!

Love this post - It truly is important to do things for the ones we love whether it is making a lunch or making a bed.

I really want to hear the story of The Pink Eye Sandwich - that sounds like a keeper! Ha

Suzanne - for some reason your posts were not showing up in my google reader so when I got your comment today I came over and cannot believe how many posts I missed. You have said nothing to offend me!! I will be refollowing you or whatever it takes to fix the problem - weird!!

Have a Wonderful day and thank for your great insight!

Joy For Your Journey said...

What a sweet post and what a great challenge. I will accept that challenge. Our stake has a theme each year and this year it is "Love One Another" Your challenge is a great way to kick off the new year. Thanks for sharing. And good for you for making the lunches. I detest making school lunches, and haven't made them in years.

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