• Start Here
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Table
    • Together at the Table
    • Food and Such
      • Beverages
      • Bread
      • Breakfast
      • Main Dishes
      • Vegetables & Sides
      • Soups
      • Desserts
  • Writing
    • On Family
  • Happy Designs
  • Connect
    • For You
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

On Pinky Pledges & Laying Stones

May 14, 2016 by HappyGoStuckey 2 Comments

Amidst plates circling the dinner table and clattering forks following suit— I almost didn’t hear what she said. I might have missed it completely if she had not jabbed her petite pinky finger up toward my face.

She said it again. This time I heard her loud and clear—
“Pinky Pledge, Mommy.”
“Do you pinky pledge that God is real?”
My pinky locked with her own— brown eyes staring into blue. And I just told her.
I told her what I knew to be true. Well, all I could sputter out in 45 seconds.
She smiled, looked away, nodded her head in a satisfied staccato, then continued lining up her tiny ponies.
“Ok–ay!” She Chirped.

pinkypleges

Activity resumed all around us but I froze for several seconds.
All this imperfect struggling to be always funneling truth into their shampoo-scented heads and it sneaks up on us, sharing the Gospel in tiny four-year-old bites.

This time it wasn’t a planned Bible story time. It didn’t have the feel of some sacred moment.
It was just our real life—
Words drifting around the kitchen, floating on the easy fun of a Friday night.

And you and I know it like we know that iced water is the perfect chaser to a hot latte.
That this is a scary and glorious part of parenting and life in general. That we rarely see all that God is doing. Most of what He does, He does in the secret places.

Somehow I still forget that they are always listening. When Joshua told the people of Israel to lay stones in memorial to what God had done to save them– he said the children would see the stones and then they would ask and they would tell them– oh, would they tell them.

They will ask.
They will notice.
They will have questions.
And we hope that if it is really real and true for us, it will be clear enough for them.
But at the end of our hope that we’re doing it right, there is One who does all things well.

I’m still learning that the journey of teaching them is one of constancy. One of every moment an opportunity– not to anxiously squeeze lessons out of every breath we take, but to teach them as we are going. In the joy we have and the life we embrace. In the gratefulness we walk in and in the hope of what is to come.

As we run into waves and slather on sunscreen. As we play silly games and search for illusive socks.
In the Sunday afternoon moments, when preschool papers litter the kitchen table like paper mache’.
When forgotten paper plates blow across the front porch scattering cold pizza crust and scooters zip up & down the driveway.
When night time dance parties fizzle and we settle down under puffy duvets, red-faced and big-haired. In both the bedlam and the quiet– we get to lay our stones.

Even when we are overwhelmed, we get to be the ones. This is a great gift, this mission of parenting.

Even when we feel stomach sick at our not-enough-ness, we can relax a little.
God is the One doing the calling. But lucky us– we get to translate, we get to extend His offer, we get to keep laying the stones of all that He has done to rescue us.
We get to tell them both with our words and with our laughter.

So let’s tell them well.

What I Learned in April
Quick Basil Pesto

Comments

  1. MaryLou Caskey says

    May 14, 2016 at 11:10 am

    Cynthia, you site is so beautiful and what a gifted writer! Thank you for doing this!

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      May 16, 2016 at 11:56 am

      Thank you Mary Lou! So glad to have met you through the HopeWriters group!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe and receive a Free copy of “Simmer: Six soup recipes and the Stories that Inspired Them.”

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

Instagram

happygostuckey

I’ve always wanted to paint, but I guess this is I’ve always wanted to paint, but I guess this is almost as good. 🥰 

Finished this lovely piece for a very special birthday and I really love it!
Thank you for the free pattern, @dmc_embroidery !
It’s that time of year again! Here in Augusta, e It’s that time of year again! Here in Augusta, everything is shades of green— ⛳️🌿🥬🌳— including some of our favorite foods! Our Masters celebrations look different from year to year, but we ALWAYS have at least one meal made of Pimento Cheese, Arnold Palmers, & Green Jacket Salad. If only we could get someone to smuggle us out a 🍑 Peach Ice Cream Sandwich, we’d be good!!

I’ve linked my favorite recipe for Green Jacket Salad today so you can grab it and bring a little Masters into your meals this week!
Happy Easter from the grateful, hopeful, Stuckeys. Happy Easter from the grateful, hopeful, Stuckeys. He alone is our Peace.

Surely he has borne our griefs
  and carried our sorrows;
 yet we esteemed him stricken,
 smitten by God, and afflicted. 
 
  But he was pierced for our transgressions;
 he was crushed for our iniquities;
 upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
 and with his wounds we are healed. 
 
  All we like sheep have gone astray;
 we have turned—every one—to his own way;
 and the LORD has laid on him
  the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6
It’s officially Guac-A-Clock. 🥑Ringing in the It’s officially Guac-A-Clock. 🥑Ringing in the fact that it’s almost Master’s Week in Augusta with pollen and Pellegrino aplenty.
When all is well, we often forget to pay attention When all is well, we often forget to pay attention.

We forget to look for daily provisions and mercies as we do when they are life and water to us.

It is not sunny optimism, but hope-filled obstinacy that pushes us to count our gifts instead of our trials.

To know that when the season is hard, and awkward, and everything seems backwards— we are not forgotten.

You may well know, it’s not an easy task. It’s hard work. Like those last few reps of lifting weights— when your muscles burn and you need to quit. What does the coach always say? “Don’t stop. These are the ones that count.”

Perhaps we think of gratefulness like this— It’s still important when we’re sitting with so much grace around us that we hardly remember our thanks.

But when it’s hard?
When it hurts?
When we cannot possibly see the light at the end of this particular tunnel— ✨there✨ is where we make the list of all we know to be true.

That is the place where it counts.
Where we squint if we must, to see what God is doing for us and in us— and definitely in spite of us.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll just be over here filling pages with provision I never want to forget. #solideogloria
Just a little flower garden while we wait for spri Just a little flower garden while we wait for spring to come in earnest. 🪡 🌸🪴🌼🌿 

This is a flour sack towel and although I don’t recommend it for stitching, (too loosely woven,) I do love the way it turned out! 💗
“Sometimes, placemakers make new. Build fresh. S “Sometimes, placemakers make new. Build fresh. Start from scratch. But most of the time, they repair. They restore. They protect. Sometimes, placemaking is nothing more than the refusal to unmake.”

@christiepurifoy // Placemaker

#internationalwomensday #mothersofdaughters #getaftergrateful #weareplacemakers
Do you remember your last normal adventure? Mine Do you remember your last normal adventure? 

Mine was one year ago today and I love the pictures from it so much I made them into a chatbook.

My Mom & I visited the @biltmoreestate to celebrate her being healed from cancer— We enjoyed the most beautiful afternoon tea, saw the Downton Abbey exhibit and were even surprised with a bit of unexpected snow.
It really was ✨magical✨ and proof that short getaways really can be the best!

Planning travel might be my favorite part— Where will you go next? 🧳 🛫⛰🏰
Throwing it back but not way back: remember last y Throwing it back but not way back: remember last year when we *discovered* the whipped, frothy, goodness of Dalgona Coffee?

I made it again today for the express purpose of seeing if it would still work with less sugar and I rather like my lightened up version!

(Tip: in my opinion, it makes enough for two— especially because I use instant espresso— so it’s pretty strong! Not warm where you are yet?  Tap the little flag to save this post for later.)

✨Whipped Coffee✨ 
2 TBS. instant espresso
2 TBS. cold water
1 TBS. maple syrup or simple syrup
1-2 glasses of ice and milk

Whip/ Beat the espresso, syrup, and water with an electric beater, immersion blender, or hand-held milk frother until frothy and light in color. Scoop over the milk and ice and enjoy!
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Categories

Featured Posts

On Waiting & Moving

(And a Recipe for Italian Tortellini Soup) Later this month, our family will celebrate the 10th … [ Read More ]

Five Good Things

Hi. How are you, really? If you're anything like me-- you have moments of complete gratefulness for … [ Read More ]

Winter Favorites

(and why it matters to pay attention to the little things.) "For you are the sunshine-maker in … [ Read More ]

Loving Lately in November

"...all creation's revealing his majesty. We're invited to join with all nature in manifold witness … [ Read More ]

Feasting & Foraging (free for the weekend!) 🍊🌿

I wrote a book, called Feasting & Foraging, and I would like to tell you why. About a year … [ Read More ]

Miss Something?

Please be kind and give proper credit if you share! © Cynthia M. Stuckey. For personal use only, not to be copied, distributed, altered or sold.

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy may be found HERE.

Want each post to magically appear in your email box?

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Cynthia@happygostuckey.com
xo Cynthia
  • Start Here
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Table
  • Writing
  • Happy Designs
  • Connect

© 2021 · Pretty Creative WordPress Theme by, Pretty Darn Cute Design