Flower Girl

I've never been that woman who keeps her table decorated.
Oh, there was that short period, when I was a new bride with matching placemats, napkin rings, and place settings.  But the placemats were soon stained with baby food and the napkin rings were more useful as a toy for my toddler.
Besides, I like clean lines and blank spaces.
Unfortunately, my family likes to FILL blank spaces.  So more often than not, my table and countertops are covered with stuff like this...

and this....

And even when Hillary isn't making an art project and Parker isn't taking apart the old broken toaster, and I manage to remove all the dirty dishes and put away the clean laundry, it isn't long before it's covered again with discarded coats and my purse and keys and the electric bill and someone's half empty Sonic cup.
Alas, I am usually more interested in Practicality than Prettiness.
But God gave me a Girl to remind me that there is beauty in the world and it's important.
From the medicine cup containing two dandelions and a tiny purple weed when she was 5, to the wildflowers she cut and arranged in a vase last summer, she occasionally surprises me with bits of beauty for our table.
On Valentines day, she got real flowers.  Beautiful flowers delivered in a tissue filled box with a card that said, "From a friend."
And instead of keeping them in her room, which I probably would have done at her age, she snipped the ends and filled the vase with the packet of flower food, and arranged the bobbing blossoms right in the middle of our kitchen table.

And every time I pass my scratched and scarred old table, I am caught by the beauty and color and soft sweet scent.
My Flower Girl has opened my eyes to so much that is Pleasant in this world...an interesting photograph, a funky piece of jewelry, a melody written from the heart, a flower in a vase.  She reminds me that beauty is worth taking time for.
I am so thankful for this Flower Girl...without her, my life would never have Bloomed.