What really matters

Several loved ones bought my daughter dolls for Christmas. Her favorite was a plastic, life-like one that came with its own folding stroller. The doll had not been out of the box more than a day before our beloved family dog took a large bite out of the doll’s right hand.

My first thought: Great, now I need to figure out where the doll came from and replace it. My second thought: No. Here’s a chance to teach my daughter that we should love and play with everyone—regardless of the shape of their hands.

The lesson was an easy one for my daughter. She noticed the injury, but her love for the doll remained unchanged. For me, the lesson was harder. What kind of mother will I look like if my daughter carries this doll around?

Keeping the doll was an exercise in teaching myself about what really matters. If Jesus were choosing between dolls, the perfect, plastic-wrapped one still in the box wouldn’t be of much interest. But the one that’s stared down a canine’s incisors and made it out alive? That sounds like a toy Jesus might be interested in.

This message is excerpted from a Women of the ELCA blog by Sarah Carson. You can read it here. Today we remember Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany; and Olaf, King of Norway, martyr, who died in 1030.