Warm cinnamon rolls and hot coffee on a cool morning...

My daughter has been sick all weekend.  She was so excited on Friday because she had invited a friend over to her new house to spend the night.  By lunch on Friday, she was running a fever.  By 6:00, she was burning up.  I felt so bad for her.  She was so deflated and lethargic.  She has slept off and on for more than a day, and she hasn't eaten in over 36 hours.  This morning she woke up and said she was hungry...Hallelujah!  Praise God!  She is on the mend.  So I made her favorite...hot cinnamon rolls.  So I sat down and enjoyed a few myself. with my piping hot coffee.  Such a little pleasure, right?  But, you see, my life has recently become about simple pleasures and attempting to live in the moment.  For instance, yesterday I went to the parade by myself to watch my son whiz by me while playing the saxophone.  I was so very proud!  He really can play.  The band director stopped the band right in front of us, and I got to enjoy just a while longer.  Reveling in the sound of his achievement.  I will remember that sound and the emotion that it stirred in my heart always.  There have been years that I would have paid my children NOT to be in the parade.  Too busy for that...not yesterday!  In the past, I would have gone with a friend and talked the entire time while the parade marched by...never again!  We miss so much because we are on to the next event or worried about what is going to happen next.  While Ellie was sick, Evan stayed with a friend.  Therefore, I was able to spend time with her.  We watched Christmas movies together and just talked, some conversations that we needed to have.  While I was worried that the bathrooms needed to be cleaned and some stuff needed to be put away, I knew that she needed me more.  Those other things could wait until she was peacefully sleeping.  We are here but for a very short while.  We have but one purpose, and that purpose is not to clean the bathrooms or keep up with the Joneses (whoever they are).  Our one purpose on this earth is to further God's kingdom.  So we need to stop, breathe, look around, and see the need right now whether it be a conversation, a hug, a standing ovation, or simply baking some cinnamon rolls from a can.