A bunch of hodgepodge.

My husband yanked his tooth out tonight.  No kidding. I laughed and he did too.  Although, I think he was laughing because he was finally pain free.  You see last week when we were both under the weather and feeling quite flu-ish, he bit into something hard at dinner.  It immediately brought immense pain.  So much so that I had to rush to the store in my "I've been sick all day and don't feel very pretty" clothes to pick up some Orajel.  I think that was the quickest I ever been in and out of a store.  A dab of the Orajel brought instant relief, albiet temporary relief.  Tooth pain is horrible.  It had been bothering him off and on all week and was not going to go away. Once the tooth was out we noticed this tooth was rotting away on the inside, but was still quite beautiful on the outside.  This reminded me what happens when bitterness takes root in your soul.  You slowly start to rot from the inside.  On the outside you may seem all put together and say all of the right things, but in reality you are slowly decaying.  I know because I have harbored bitterness.  The decay starts off slow, and you live in denial for a long time.   I have justified my bitterness claiming a victim status.  It is just not fair.  I have been deceived and flat out lied to.  They do not practice what they preach.  This victim status turns into a judgemental status.  Am I the judge?  Do I preside and decide justice?  The answer is no.  I serve a righteous God who will make sure justice prevails.  However, I am called to forgive.  I am to forgive even when not asked and further commanded to love my enemies.  Forgiveness frees my heart of bitterness, brings a stop to the decay, and brings about restoration and relationship with the Father.  Without forgiveness true relationship cannot be had with the Father.

I also must report that I had another failure tonight.  Boo.  I really did not want to have to share another flaw after my fail yesterday.  However, Kevin so graciously reminded me that this blog is giving transparency to our lives in order to humble ourselves before Him, bring Him Glory and learn life lessons in the process.  Needless to say, Kevin had to remind me of our current family memory verse. 

Kind (gracious/pleasant) words are like a honeycomb; sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24

You see I was self-consumed in watching a story on the 700 Club (of all shows), and Colton was in the process of opening the back door.  I asked him not to (and I had good reasons), but he proceeded.  This is where it all went wrong.  As he opened the door I jumped up to remind him that I told him not to open the door.  He raised his voice and said, "I can open it if I want to."  I replied with a raised voice, "No you cannot open it if you want to."  I then proceeded to give one soft spank on the bum and sat him in time out right in front of the back door.  This was a horrible discipline moment.  I crushed his spirit, and the tears loudly followed.  All because I wanted to see this segment, which I ended up totally missing anyway.  Kevin kindly rebuked me and ever so calmly began to recite our memory verse.  I was caught and stunned like a deer in the headlights.  Only By God's Grace and mercy did He end up turning this ugly moment into a beautiful and tenderhearted teaching moment.  I apologized to Colton, asked him a series of questions, and basically re-enacted what should have taken place.  This was all because we are holding each other accountable, and, more importantly, the Holy Spirit has increased his vocabulary.  A little later my sweet boy (that does not get in trouble very often) was sitting with me in the recliner, and he randomly said, "Hey, Mommy, I love you."  How precious is that!  Thank you Jesus that children are so quick to forgive and forget!  Children set a great example of true forgiveness and love.  My heart just melted.

One more thing, my Colton is so funny.  God really gifted him with a great sense of humor.  He came out of mine and Kevin's shower this evening still dripping from not drying off very well.  He walked up to me and asked me if he smelled of Cranberries & Blue.  I did not quite understand at first, but then he said, "You know, handsome."  I replied with a strong yes and bear hug.  You see he was using Kevin's Old Spice body wash.  The bottle is a cranberry-red and blue color, and he knows Mommy thinks it makes Daddy smell handsome.  (I think Kevlie Ann had told him it was cranberry in color.)

This blog entry was titled A Bunch of Hodgepodge because I thought that I was going to be sharing several different stories that did not tie in very well and some other funny stuff that happened today.  It is ironic that after typing it up, the tooth story and my failure at discipline and resulting forgiveness ended up relating.  I also had some other lessons learned from Calvin today, but I have now decided that would make this post too long.  I will say that I am extremely proud of Calvin today for how hard he worked at checking all of the items off of his list when he got home from school.  He completed the jobs in record time, and he learned a lot in the process.  It brings me great joy to see him maturing into a young man.

Kevin has been reading my blogs.  I asked him if they were any good.  He replied, "Yes, but I feel like I am living them."  We laughed and I was glad that was his response because it means I am being truly transparent.

In case any of you were wondering, Kevin will be putting his tooth under his pillow.  Kevlie Ann is quite hopeful that he will receive a visit even though he is an adult.  I think Kevin is quite hopeful as well.

Only By God's Grace

With much love,

Callie Ann