My rare and beautiful treasures

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. Proverbs 24:3-4

My "rare and beautiful treasures" are all still asleep, but since I've been up for a couple of hours and two cups of coffee, I thought I'd spend some time with y'all this morning. I've been looking in Proverbs for wisdom about being a wife and mom, and I have found quite a bit. This one, though, particularly caught my eye, because we had a pretty rough night last night, and I showed a decided lack of wisdom, understanding, and/or knowledge.

Many of you know that John-John is extremely hyperactive. If you don't have a hyperactive child, you think that means he has more energy than other children, but that is only one aspect of hyperactivity. Hyperactivity also means that he is very literal and very, very rigid...when you tell him something is going to be a certain way, if it varies from that at all, he is very upset and discombobulated. Add on top of these things that he is very smart, and you have a recipe for disaster. Throw in a really bad storm last night, and...well, you get the picture. At 11 last night, he decided he couldn't sleep, and if he couldn't, neither could anybody else. I have to say for my girls--when he starts acting like he did last night, they just ignore it. They know it will be over relatively soon, and they don't try to intervene or get in his way, because they've learned through experience that isn't the thing to do. Finally, after a half hour of horrible behavior (on his part and mine), Marc realized what was at the root of his behavior. Something I had really built up as important for a couple of days had not gone as he thought it would. Someone had not treated him nicely, and while he handled it well at the time (which I can see in retrospect is a sign of growing maturity), he let it build up all day, finally letting loose late last night. Marc asked him if that was what was bothering him, and we could immediately see that it was. Within five minutes, he was soundly asleep. He only needed for us to say that it was okay to be sad about that. How does this relate to the scripture above? If I had prayed (wisdom) for insight (understanding) instead of cajoling and pleading and getting angry because he was upsetting me and my plans for the night, I might have cut short this episode and had a better evening. One of the things God is teaching me in a massive, massive way is that while I might really want to be the perfect, Godly wife and mom, I cannot do it on my own. In fact, on my own I mess it up every single time. The good news? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am definitely not on my own--but I have to ask for help from Him who entrusted these to me.

Yesterday was packing day. (In our house, those words are now accompanied by a little trumpet fanfare we've created, since Marc kept saying "It's packing day!" over and over.) We filled all but one of our crates, and two of our five suitcases. It was an overwhelming task, but with my parents' help we got it done. We will be doing some more after church this morning.

Friday night, we said farewell to some beloved friends--Gail Warren and Melissa Grimsley. Our girls have been friends forever, and we have developed a close relationship over the years, too. These are amazing women...funny and beautiful, full of compassion and mercy, loyal and faithful, both to those they love and to God. I am in awe of them, and we had such a wonderful time at Gail's house. One of the funniest parts of the evening was John's reaction to Gail's animals. If you know John at all, you know that he is absolutely IN LOVE with all God's creatures. He doesn't want us to kill ants or roaches or bees--they are God's "little guys," and they deserve John's love and affection, too. Well, Gail has a menagerie at her house, and he was in love with every animal there. His favorite, however, was the ferret. He did not want to call it a ferret. He wanted to call it a weasel. So he spent the night playing with the weasel. No matter how many times he said something about the weasel, we still laughed. Poor thing. It probably slept really well after we left!

Well, the sun is almost up, and there are things to be done. Continue to pray for us this week, as we say our final goodbyes and prepare to leave Friday morning. Pray especially for my Mom and Daddy. It is hard. Enough said.

Blessings!

His,
Kellye