Prepped to serve

6:34 p.m. Today's project was to prepare for my daughter Heidi's family bridal shower. The Lord provided good encouragement before I even got dressed this morning, because my younger daughter Mrs. Heather Love came over with scads of supplies, including gourmet noshes like blueberry chevre cheese and delicate crackers, her punch ingredients, and two kinds of cookies for the ice cream sandwiches. She brought along a fuschia tablecloth that I even managed to iron before my hairdresser appointment. Assuring me that she'll set up all the decorations, she kissed us goodbye and buzzed off to work. "Buzz" is a good word for her, because our Heather is a busy bee, with marriage, work, her HeatherAllisonLove Photography business, and her ministry!

While I was still in my "housegown," my daughter-in-law Marisela texted to let me know that she'll make and bring the Mexican rice we'll need to accompany the chicken fajitas I'm serving. I love me some daughters! Being a mother of girls has been a gift, a choice gift from the Lord to me in this life. Seeing them grow into virtuous women of God, and selecting Christian young men as husbands is just icing on the proverbial cake!

Let me also add that coming to know and love the women my sons have married has been wonderful as well, because I see being a mother-in-law not only as a great adventure, but as a ministry of love and encouragement. My mother and my mother-in-law excelled in this role, and Steve's and my marriage has benefitted in a thousand ways. We sure do miss them, our precious Ruby and Pearl! They set the bar very high. They are laughing and enjoying one another's company with Jesus right now. Scripture tells us what joy awaits believers: "to be absent from the body and present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8).

Steve and I drove down to Vons to get the ready-made chicken fajitas I'd ordered this morning, sliced and marinated with three kinds of bell peppers, onions and cilantro that I will cook in the morning. We picked up avocados for Heather's famous guacamole. She'll have organic cilantro grown in our garden, so it has a very intense fragrance and yummy taste. She can pick between dried and fresh leaves. In addition to setting up, Heather will be the mistress of ceremonies for the games she's selected--I left the entertainment up to her. If there's one thing I taught my girls here at home it's how to throw a party! Heather's a natural, and Heidi has hosted bridal showers as well as being my right-hand person for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

May my daughters and daughters-in-law aspire to these verses, Proverbs 31:29-31:

Many daughters have done well,

But you excel them all.

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,

But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands,

And let her own works praise her in the gates.