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| Staci Stallings, the author of this article, is a Contemporary Christian author and the founder of Grace & Faith Author Connection. Check out Staci's brand new release.. |
I remember that day so very well. I was young – four or five. We did something unusual that day, unusual for my house at
least. We made cupcakes. With my mom helping out on our family
owned and operated dairy, there wasn’t much time for cupcake-baking. But that day, for whatever reason, we
made cupcakes.
At that point in time my grandfather, who later lost his
sight to diabetes, could still see.
Also at that time he had several horses only a quarter-mile from our house. That day my grandpa happened to be out
with the horses, and one of us, my mom or me, decided that I should take him a
cupcake.
Now from the time I was small, missions were very important
to me. I held my responsibilities
in very high regard. I didn’t want
to simply do things – I wanted to do them perfectly. So I set out, barefoot, from my house, cupcake in hand,
bound for the pen where my grandpa was working.
However, when I got there, I found a huge problem for a
little girl with a cupcake in her hand – the fence that separated me from
Grandpa’s side. There was a gate
connecting the fence. It was an
old gray aluminum number with about four horizontal slats held together with
one long diagonal slat. At five or
so feet tall, it was a monster.
Worse, whatever held it upright didn’t hold it steady. So the gate swayed dangerously top down
with any pressure applied to it.
For little me, that gate presented a big problem. I wasn’t big enough to open it. I couldn’t yell loud enough for Grandpa
to hear me. So as I surveyed the
situation in my little mind, I decided my only option was to climb the thing.
I only hope that now I would be smart enough to set the
cupcake through the gate before I started climbing. Unfortunately, I didn’t think that far ahead that day. Instead, cupcake in hand, I started
climbing.
The journey was going pretty well until I got to the
top. As I hiked my first let over
the top slat, I ran out of hands to keep me stable just as the gate swayed the
other direction. I remember
Grandpa yelling for me to stop and wait.
I remember saying something like, “Grandpa, look! I brought you a cupcake.”
The next thing I remember is hitting the hard ground on the
other side with a body-whacking thud.
The next thing I remember is seeing the cupcake smashed into a flat,
chocolate mud pie next to me.
Grandpa made it to me about ten seconds after I hit the ground. I was
absolutely hysterical. He picked me up and held me, telling me it would be okay
and asking if I was hurt.
All I could think was I had smashed the cupcake. His
cupcake. I had failed the mission.
I had let him down.
It took me many long years to learn the lesson of that
day. The truth was: He didn’t care about the stupid
cupcake. He cared about me.
I learned this only when I realized that is exactly how God
is with us. We’re all worried
about the cupcakes we’ve made and are bringing to Him – like our
accomplishments and our good deeds and our ministries. But the reality is He doesn’t care
about our cupcakes – He cares about us!
And it really doesn’t matter to Him if our cupcakes get smashed along
the way or if they were ever perfect in the first place. All He cares about is being able to
hold us so he can ask what’s wrong, where are we hurt, and being able to hold
us until we’re all better.
It took me a long time to be grateful for falling over that
gate, but now that I see the lesson, those cupcakes, those missions, and being
perfect don’t seem nearly as important.
What’s important, all that’s important, is He loves me. Everything else is cupcakes, and He
doesn’t care about the cupcakes.
To Protect & Serve
The Courage Series, Book 1
Houston firefighter, Jeff Taylor is a fireman's fireman. No
situation is too dangerous to keep him sidelined if lives are on the line.
However, when control freak Lisa Matheson falls for him, she quickly realizes
she can't control Jeff or the death wish he seems to have... To save other's lives, they will risk their own
Buy it on Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Protect-Serve-Courage-Series-ebook/dp/B008391QB2/ref=sr_1_22?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337091378&sr=1-22
Buy it on Barnes & Noble Nook:
"To Protect and Serve will hold you prisoner to its
pages until the final one is turned. Prepare to cry, laugh, wish, love and
maybe even cry again as you become enveloped in the hopes and feelings of Lisa
and Jeff."
-Cindy Reige
Copyright Staci Stallings, 2005
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