SO.MANY.WORDS.

The gift of Autism has taught us so much about the brain and how it operates.  One of the many helpful things I've learned over the last several years is that some people are EXTERNAL processors and others are INTERNAL processors.

EXTERNAL processors are people that often think and talk everything out loud with others listening and supporting as they do so.  In order to understand how they feel about something, they prefer to talk it out with someone else.  INTERNAL processors process their feelings and thoughts internally first before expressing them out loud.  They are more likely to turn inward to get clarity, rather than outward to the people in their life.

Neither way is right or wrong... just different.  Keith and Alex are both EXTERNAL processors.  They talk A LOT!  Alex Harmon just finished his freshman year of college and, although he didn't come home often, he called me about 4-5 times a day.  To talk.  About nothing.  So.Many.Words.  Over the years, I've just learned to appreciate the way his brain is wired and decided if he is going to invite me to listen to every thought he has, then I will use that information to know how to pray for him and guide him.

Well, Alex moved out of the dorm and back home for the summer, which means, LOTS AND LOTS OF WORDS!!!  He literally wakes up in mid conversation and is content to follow me around the house talking about, well, EVERYTHING.  I didn't think about how the extra talking would affect Miles or if he even noticed a difference... until yesterday.  I came upstairs and walked into the living room where Miles was sitting.  Alex was following me and talking, as usual.  Miles, with two iPads going and wearing noise cancelling headphones, looked up at Alex and said, “TURN MOUTH OFF.”  Simple. Direct. And to the point.

MOTHER'S DAY

The one behind the camera made me a mom and made life fun.  The one in my arms made me wrestle with my role as a mom and forced me to declare war on the person in the mirror.  The fun, the hard, the good, the bad... it is all worth it.  These boys are amazing and I never want to be the me before them.

CIRCA 1987

Keith switched elementary schools in 5th grade and became best friends with a boy that lived down the street from me.  Every day after school, when my friend Brooke and I were outside playing, Keith and Chad went up and down the street trying to get our attention. Sometimes that meant riding their bikes, making sure to do a cool trick as they passed us.  Othertimes, they would play loudly in Chad's front yard, making sure we knew they were there.  But if Brooke and I were playing basketball in her driveway, they would walk up and down the sidewalk bouncing a basketball, waiting for an invitation to play H-O-R-S-E.

Keith would repeat this attention-getting ritual off an on over the next several years because he already decided he was going to marry me.  His woo-ing skills were similar to that of a red-capped manakin and although annoying at the time, it was always entertaining.  I'm so grateful that Keith didn't give up on his pursuit of me, but I'm even more grateful that a Holy, Righteous God would actively pursue stubborn, sinful me.

Single ladies, don't give in to someone who isn't willing to display the character of God to you, someone who isn't willing to actively pursue you and prove that you can trust him with your heart.  You want someone to protect your heart and make your emotional and physical purity a priority.  If he isn't willing to "guard and keep" you before getting married, it is not likely that he will willing to step into that role in the future. 

"Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it." {Proverbs 4:23}