Today was not unlike any other day, complete with the high pitched whine of roll after roll of SCOTCH TAPE!  My middle-est son, Brody, outdid himself today.  "Mama, check out my wicked Wolverine costume."

As I took this photo this afternoon I remembered another post all about Scotch Tape... and one of our more challenging days.

(AUGUST 2011)

On the last day of the boys' Summer Vacation they pulled out their hefty box of craft supplies and "invented."  Caleb made a bow and arrow and Asher came up with a flower with eyes.  I had nothing to do with their creative brilliance.  I also had nothing to do with this...

How in the world did my five year old manage this remarkably authentic VIking costume, complete with piercings?  

Tape.  

The answer to all things Brody can usually be summed up with that single word.  Once I stopped hiding the tape, esteeming its market-value above it's Brody-value, things really got creative in our home.  Some days I'll wake up to find a naked bird-boy beside my bed... truly outfitted in nothing but colorful feathers (again from the craft box) and scotch tape.  Other days he turns our hallway into an art gallery with an entire coloring book's worth of art taped to the wall.  And let me not forget the day he spent crying because  his tape did not hold the power to turn him into a real robot... a costumed 'bot, maybe, but not a real one.

Today my creative oddball ventured forth from our tape-haven, out into the world of Kindergarten. I wasn't too concerned.  My greatest memories of Kindergarten include peeling dried white glue from my little hands, and sculpting and painting the keepsake Easter baskets and Christmas snowmen my mom still puts on display each holiday.  This creative child loved Kindergarten... why wouldn't he?

"So... how did it go?" you ask?  Well, let's just say that when I went to the opening day ceremonies at his school, where the entire class body welcomes the incoming Kindergarteners, Brody stood up before all his peers and mine, scowled right at me in the second row, and mouthed the words "take me home, NOW!"  When I smiled lovingly and shook my head no he signed the words, "I don't love you..."  

Marvelous!  

I have three strong boys.  #1 must always have his way,#2's way never seems to make sense, and #3 will soon be big enough to muscle the other two down to the floor until they surrender their strong wills and cry "mercy!"  

As I tucked #1 into bed this evening we reviewed his first week's Memory verse:

"Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I used to interpret the words, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" to mean that God's will for us is that we give thanks in all our circumstances.  But recently I've come to believe that God's will for us is the circumstance that we are in, and therefore we are to give thanks for each one, no matter how challenging they may be.  

God crafted my boys together in my womb and gave them to me (in quick succession) as "gifts," as "rewards," as Proverbial "arrows" in my quiver, for His good pleasure and my ultimate good.  The circumstances I find myself in each day with these Blessed Hooligans are God's will for me in Christ Jesus!  He uses them to make me more like Himself; patient, kind, long-suffering, merciful, and good.   

And so I give Him thanks this evening.