This week, we were blessed to celebrate 2 special boys in our lives. Cooper my oldest turned 9, (gulp) and Brooks (my prayer life, lol) turned 4. Being that we have 7 blessings and that mommy took "off" a year to carry twins, pretty much we have been living on daddy's income and relying on Dave Ramsey (envelope system) to get us through. Its truly amazing what creative things you can come up with when there is no cash to spend, but that's for another day to talk about.
Well, this year I wanted to get "thrifty" more then crafty so Cooper and a friend from school went in together to split a birthday party celebration. It was wonderful. We were able to invite the whole third grade to a skate party from his school and her parents and us spilt it down the middle. Pretty much we had to just bring our own cake which brings me to my lesson.
When we bought Cooper's cake it was a sheet cake with cupcakes around it, so I thought from the picture, GREAT, options for everyone but when we picked up the cake there were 30 cupcakes around a sheet cake that feeds 36-42 people. Needless to say, the cupcakes were gone and we came home with a sheet cake.
So seeing that I have an untouched perfectly good cake, I decided to scrape Cooper's name off and place Brook's name on it for his party this Thursday. I thought it sounded like the best most economical idea and even my hubby agreed to let it not go to waste. That was until my 7 year old daughter got wind of what I was up too. You would have thought that I was re-using some of Cooper's ear wax to mold Brook's birthday candles the way she re-acted. she just couldn't understand why in the world I would dare re-use Cooper's cake when Brooks deserved one of his own.
A few thoughts came to my mind:
1. Brooks can't read so really he has NO IDEA that's not his name
2. Its a Star Wars cake and all I have to do is poke light sabers in the holes where Cooper's candles were
3. He's turning 4 and pretty is much more interested in the water park than cake
4. And lastly, ITS A PERFECT CAKE and I'm not wasting money
So how do you do when dealing with money? I'm not asking you to email me your budget plan for the month or even show me your envelope system but how do you do with the things the Lord has blessed you with? Do you share your wealth? Hide it? Do you squander it on silly things? Trust me. I'm preaching to myself here but look at what the bible says:
"Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase..." Proverbs 3:9
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" 1Timothy 6:10
So you ask how did I get all this from a birthday cake? Honestly, I went around a corner, came up a slope, slid down into the gravel, and jumped on to home plate and there I found my answer. So instead of me preaching to my young one about responsibility of money, we talked of the less fortunate. Those who maybe have never had a birthday cake to call their own. We talked of children far away and close by that maybe haven't eaten today and most of all we talked about how to share our blessings with others.
So yes, you can learn a lot from a birthday cake. From school aged children and from yourself. So next time, a path is put in front of you and you wonder whether you should scrape the name off that birthday cake, just remember what debt was paid for us.
Happy Birthday Cooper and Brooks!
