Icing on the Cake

Mom baked me a large three-layer German Chocolate cake every year for my birthday from when I was a toddler until I was out of college. I’ve tried a lot of German Chocolate cakes, but never had one come close to touching Mom’s. The extra icing dripping between the layers of moist chocolate cake makes my taste buds water just thinking about it. 

My only problem each year was if my younger brother, Mike, was going to eat more of my cake than I was. Mike has a really big sweet tooth and was known to consume more than his share if you turned your back for even a split second.     

One year, I decided that I was going to make sure I ate most of the cake. Hey, this is MY birthday cake! So I proceeded to devour four big pieces in one sitting. Wow, was I full! I’m positive that the fourth piece was not as tasty as the first three. My stomach was as unhappy as Mike was with my gluttonous behavior. 

I realize now that it was less about wanting more cake and more about my scarcity mindset wanting control. This mindset was really crazy considering Mom would have baked another cake if we had simply asked her. As I reflected on these fond memories of growing up, two things really caught my attention.

First, there will never be a German Chocolate cake that matches Mom’s because she always mixed in lots of love into the batter. (Have I mentioned the “extra” frosting dripping down the sides—yum!) When we share our love, everything is more special. Why are we so quick to forget this? Love makes us better.

Second, my desire to control—my mindset of scarcity, really caused me to miss the abundance that was right in front of me. Whenever we become “grabby” or “clingy” we are usually operating out of a mindset of scarcity. I use memories of Mom’s German chocolate cake to remind me of all the abundance I have in my life. With a mindset of abundance, we are more generous with our time, resources and love.

What mindset have we been using lately? Have we been serving slices of abundance or hoarding in scarcity? Let’s put a little extra frosting on our day for our family, clients and team.