Sweet!

Who doesn’t love an unexpected treat? A door held open by a stranger, a dandelion proffered by the hand of a wide-eyed two-year-old, a cake on your birthday? The act or the gift speaks more deeply than its physical cost because it means that you have been noticed. Someone values you and everyone needs to feel valued. Wait. What’s so unexpected about a cake on your birthday?

I certainly expected a treat on my birthday and conditioned my children to expect them as well. They were always allowed to choose whatever treat they wanted. Sometimes it was a chocolate cake crusted with M&M minis, sometimes a key lime pie, sometimes a stack of my famous monster cookies. Yes, I see your mouth watering.

It came to my attention years ago that getting a treat on your birthday is not a given. My husband and I started taking homemade treats to the Charlotte Rescue Mission on Thanksgiving and Christmas because of a radio appeal. The Mission provides substance abuse recovery programs for men and women in our city. The clients stay on campus for 90-120 days as they learn how to restart their lives with clean hearts, bodies and minds.

On those holidays, the Mission goes all out with table cloths and good dishes and waiters serving at the tables instead of the usual buffet line. I heard from the testimonies of clients and program graduates how much that special treatment meant to them. This touched my heart because one of my beliefs is that all people have intrinsic value because they are made by God. None of the people who walk into these programs feel valued, by society or themselves.

There are always more than enough volunteers during these special events because so many want to help and show love to others. I wondered what else we could contribute to help the clients feel that sense of worthiness during the rest of the year.

I thought about their birthdays, the day that is usually set aside to celebrate the simple fact that you were born. Was the Mission able to acknowledge this day with everything else going on? All I had to do was make one phone call to the Dove’s Nest (the women’s campus) to find out that they weren’t. To my shame, it took me two years to make that call, but that’s another story.

Once connected, a plan was quickly finalized and a friend agreed to help me make treats for the women in this program whose birthdays happened while they were there. Sweet! was born. That’s what I call this little ministry based on the second half of the Message translation of Proverbs 27:9, “… a sweet friendship refreshes the soul.”

A coordinator at Dove’s Nest takes orders for birthday treats so they get what they want and we make and deliver them with a handwritten note of encouragement. At dinner, the birthday girl is celebrated by all the other residents. Over the last five years, we’ve made 288 treats. Only occasionally do I get to see the birthday girls when they happen to be in the hallway when I’m delivering the treats but, when I do, there are always hugs!

And then, there’s a note I received from one of the ladies thanking us for her cake and saying that it was the first time anyone had ever made a birthday cake for her. Ever.

That’s the reason for this post and this blog. This is going to be a place of hopeful stories, funny things and, maybe, rambling thoughts all with the intention of encouraging you. Encouraging you to look for opportunities to show compassion. It could be a good word, a smile, a gift or starting that ministry you’ve been putting off for a while now.

You are worth far more than the courtesy of that stranger holding the door, the shine in the flower-bearing toddler’s eyes and the ingredients in a cake. So is everyone else you meet today.