Feb. 24, 2014

Did you know

that February is

National

Embroidery

Month?

I know it’s a little late in the month to mention  this but the month’s not over so you still  have time to start and even complete an embroidery project. 

I remember my first real embroidery project.  My grandmother had been teaching me a few stitches off and on using scrap material but I was impatient, asking over and over, when I could do something “real”.   She’d smile and say, “When you’re grown up enough.”

The day finally came when she brought in a special surprise for me.  As she held a paper bag at her side she talked to me about how I was now old enough  and  ready to work on something more than scraps. She explained how important it was to take my time and do my best.  She said, ” in everything you do—always do your best.”  She then placed the bag from Woolworth’s department store in my lap and walked away.  I carefully opened the bag and beheld the most amazing treasures.  There were about a half a dozen brand new skeins of embroidery floss, a pack of needles, a tiny pair of scissors, a small embroidery hoop, a shiny thimble and a potholder with  a lady that looked like Mary Poppins stamped on it. While I was still marveling at the wonderful gifts before me she came back into the room and handed me a cookie tin so I would have a container just like hers in which to store it all. I sat breathless.  It was so much!  I felt special, rich and very grownup. 

After my homework and chores were complete that  day I sat quietly with great seriousness and  started working.  Over the next week or so I carefully, and for many hours each day, stitched on that simple potholder, even taking  time to, now and again, remove a few stitches and start fresh because they weren’t perfect.  I was so proud when I showed it  all finished to my loving grandmother.

So many memories,  that stretch across years, are wrapped up in that simple potholder. Memories of my grandmother’s patience and hours of investment in my life. Memories of using the potholder in her kitchen as I learned to cook by her side. Memories of reaching for it as I prepared meals  in my own kitchen. And the memory of the sadness I felt when I realized it  could be used no longer.   All that was left was stained   material that was  worn thin from years of use with only a  few lingering, tired threads barely  intact. I remember the tiny kitchen in Pasadena, CA. that I was standing in when I realized it was time to let it go. 

The potholder is gone,  my grandmother is gone   but the wonderful,  precious  memories are still there and so is the lesson that helps make me who I am today……

*in everything you do—always do your best*.

You may not know how to embroider but you know how to do something.  Cook, sew, skate, work on cars or read. Take the time to invest in your children.  If you have none of your own, then a niece or nephew.  If not a child then what about that young mother that has her hands full with a newborn or an elderly neighbor that is alone with no one to talk to.  There are memories waiting to be made. You have no idea  the impact you will have on another.  While you are caring for them, showing them real genuine  kindness take the  time to tell them of the person that loves them more than any other.  Tell them of the Saviour that died for them and let them know what he has done for you.  In sharing him, the temporal things fall away and eternal memories are born. 

I will see my grandmother again. 

Who will you see in heaven because you took the time and shared what you know with them?