Dandelion Days

A few days ago, as I was working in the kitchen, I heard a tap-tap-tap on the sliding glass door which leads to our backyard.

Turning around, I saw Reilly grinning ear to ear with a single red hollyhock blossom in her cupped hands.

"Here, Mom," she exclaimed, "this is for you!"

After much fuss and fanfare over her beautiful offering I sent her back out the door to play.

It wasn't but a few moments later that the tapping recommenced.

This time I opened the door to a single white rose she had picked off one of our climbing vines.

And again a short while after that, the final blossom and pièce de résistance-- a sunny yellow dandelion.

"Isn't it beautiful, Mom?"  she implored, "I picked them just for you!"

I assured her that I had never loved a bouquet more than her beautiful hand-picked treasures.  And that I loved her more than I could say.

 She glowed and gave me an enormous hug.  Scampering off, she turned to give me a final quick smile and then raced back outside-- most likely for a climb in her beloved apple tree.

a treasured bouquet

I smiled as I arranged my beautiful blossoms in a shallow glass bowl, and considered how I treasured that little dandelion just as much as the other flowers.  It may not have been as showy or fine a bloom as the others, but I knew it had been given to me in love.  And that was all that mattered.

I love these words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell:

"...Sometimes with smudges on our cheeks, dirt on our hands, and shoes untied, stammeringly but smilingly we present God with a dandelion-- as if it were an orchid or a rose!  If for now, the dandelion is the best we have to offer, He receives it, knowing what we may later place upon the altar." (That Ye May Believe, [1992], 100)

As I move through life, I've come to recognize that some days are just going to end up better than others.  Sometimes I feel that things are going pretty well and think that maybe, just maybe, my offerings might reach rose or hollyhock caliber.  But many times-- perhaps more often than not-- I feel perfectly inadequate, and lament over how weak and ridiculous I can be.  Still I press forward, presenting my dandelions to the Lord with all of the love in my heart.

And He loves and accepts my humble offering all the same.

~ ~ ~

I fear you sisters do not realize in the smallest part the extent of your influence for good in your families, in the Church, and in society.  Your influence for good is incalculable and indescribable...  Occasionally, however, you are too hard on yourselves.  You think that if your offering is not quite perfect, it is not acceptable.  I tell you, however, that if you have done your best, which you usually do, your humble offering, whatever it may be, will be acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.
(President James E. Faust, "Instruments in the Hands of God," October 2005 General Relief Society Meeting)