A Place For Everything and EveryONE in Their Place

     Things have certain places to which they belong; clothes in a dresser, aprons in the kitchen drawer, blankets on a bed, and pillows on the couch. Things also are made to serve specific purposes; clothes for modesty, aprons to protect us from food stains, blankets to keep us warm, and pillows to cushion our backs. The same goes for people too. Everyone has a certain place where they belong, a purpose for which they are made; this place is called home, this purpose a design.

     Yesterday, I was having a bit of an identity crisis, if you will. Jon and I had been chatting away on the plaza deck of our apartment, enjoying the weather and trying to formulate a better long term savings plan. I ran upstairs to get our laptop and starting fantasizing about making a beautiful, cutesy budget plan in Word, then printing it off with some pictures and quotes to post on our bathroom mirror for motivation. I rushed back to start the project with Jon when he jumped in and began excitedly working something out in Excel.

     Let me pause for a minute and just say that I am an "eldest child". And everyone knows that the oldest children in a family have the best ideas for everything growing up. We suggest the best games, have the best opinions on ice cream flavors, know of all the best places to hide buried treasure maps, have the best movie suggestions, know how best to decorate a shared bedroom and so on. Also, if you should happen to have the disadvantage of disagreeing, just give us five minutes of your time and you will have changed your mind. (You all agree with me, don't you? Well, of course you do!) ;) So, when Jon took charge and starting building his own version of the budget I was left to my own shock and dismay, stuttering, "Bu-b-b-but, I have the best ideas...".

     I was floored, people! Floored! How the heck had somebody come in and used their own ideas when I already had mine in place!? Now, as the horrible child I once was, I might have even gone so far as too "lose" Jon's version of the budget only to announce that all hope was not lost because we still had my version of the budget! But alas!, I am an adult now and such things cannot be tolerated so I sat and sulked and tried to talk myself into participating. Jon really wanted to share his Excel workbook with me and have me do some of the calculating so I obliged and began copying and pasting and adding numbers together too. We got everything worked out in the end and just as I was about to suggest printing the whole thing out to put up in the bathroom Jon voiced that very same idea first... Once more, I had been beaten again! Oh, Father Time if only you would come and reverse the universe for five minutes so I could catch my breath and suggest it first! I always have the best ideas and I have them first!

     By this time I was beside myself, what was I going to do if I wasn't the only one with good ideas anymore? I couldn't possibly relinquish my position of Founder and CEO of Best Ideas Ever, Inc., could I? No. But maybe I could share...? Support...? Then it hit me all over again like today was my wedding day. I am a wife! I am part of a team! I don't have to be numero uno or have all the best ideas. My place is my home and my design is to support. :) Jon and I are not each other's competition but aid and assistance. Yesterday, but even more so today, as I realized these things, my heart was made happy because when I am fulfilling my design I am in my place. I am home. :)

Genesis 2:18-24 (KJV) ~ "¹⁸ And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.' ¹⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. ²⁰ And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. ²¹ And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; ²² And with the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. ²³ And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. ²⁴ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

P.S. Follow my blog with Bloglovin