Flipped out.

My husband is truly the most patient man on earth... he'd have to be to put up with me. He's like a geyser though... he stays calm a long time, but if you push him when he's at his limit... he will snap. Stand back. When those dogs (mentioned in my last post) were getting out everyday, he reached his limit and... well he snapped. He went outside and picked up each dog (which always makes us laugh, cause he is so big that he makes the dogs look tiny) and stuck them in the tree house. At the time, I wasn't laughing... I wanted my husband to come back to reality and see that this was not a long term solution. Now it kind of cracks me up every time I think about it. So yes, my husband is a lil crazy, but now that I've revealed a glimpse into his "dark side" allow me to tell you what I admire about him.

We got married right out of high school. It wasn't a shotgun wedding or anything like that. We just truly loved each other and wanted to grow old together. At the time, it seemed like the battle we might have to wage in order to get married so young, was too big to face so we eloped. Now, I think Paul is kind of a genius... a mad genius, but very smart and that is attractive to me. I call him my own personal Google, but I seemed to have received all of the communication skills of which he seemed to have received none. Many times, I felt superior as I would leave him in the dust in some silly argument. However, as I mature, I realize more and more that it is he and not I, who is wiser. It's like that old song about living in a Kingdom upside down... meaning, in the world, the Kings are served and the surfs are the servants. However, in God's Kindgom, you see the dichotomy from the worlds perspective. He came to serve us, He gave His innocent life to pay for our sin riddled souls. These are the things I have learned from Paul. These traits are quite different from what Hollywood would choose for their hero.

Find the good in everyone and give them the benefit of the doubt.
There are very few battles worth fighting for, but fight the ones you must.
Don't hold grudges... let things go like water off a ducks back.
Respect others and don't worry about their opinion of you. Just do your best.
Try new things.
Be faithful, in everything.
Don't grumble or complain.
Always be bettering yourself.

There are a hundreds things I have learned from him, but his kindness always sticks out the most. When I told Paul I felt that God was leading us to adopt, he seemed to pray about it less than a week, and he agreed. Not many husbands are anxious to take on more kids, but to him, it was a natural decision. I have seem him stand on the corner, week after week, telling young women that he and his wife would adopt their child if they only wouldn't abort it. For 23 years I have seen him care for the less fortunate, with a willingness to give until it hurt. As I grow... me and my rapier wit, and my quick tongue, have learned who the one with all the savvy really is. Paul's living that kingdom, upside down. No, Hollywood would not choose him as their leading man... he's a led man. It can be dizzying at first, it's been hard to get my bearings standing on my head. But once you flip your perspective, you start to see things, the way they were intended to be. Maybe someday I will be crazy too... but this time, for the right reasons. :)