Saturday, February 2, 2008

written on the walls of our hearts

I love decorating! It's a creative outlet for me. I was taking inventory at our New Year's party, we have painted two bedrooms, the diningroom and hallway. We have also refinished our hardwoods, all in the last year. (Okay, so maybe this is a stress release as well!)

When Jackson and Ashley were younger, they shared a room. I painted it a beautiful bliss blue. These 10 ft. high walls needed something else...some more life. I had an idea to paint life scriptures on the wall. My friend Jackie was "commissioned" (or coerched) to come and paint a few scriptures on the walls. These were scriptures that we wanted our children to remember, to be reminded of, as they went through their day.


A couple of years ago, Jackson moved into his own room, and Ashley stayed in this room. She has talked about "redecorating" for the past year. We have discussed colors, painting over the scriptures, etc. We settled on lavendar, celery green and a dragon fly quilt, right out of Pottery Barn Kids. It has been a beautiful thing...seeing this all come together.
The day approached, time for priming and painting. Ashley took it all in and then gave the go ahead. Later, after the scriptures were covered, Ashley came in. She was trying to hold back the tears. "Mom. I love the color. I am just so sad about the scriptures being gone."
(The conversation in my head went something like this..."What!??! We talked about this honey. You said this was something you wanted. It was time for a changed. Oh m' gosh! WHAT HAVE I DONE! Oh Lord, please help me here.)
What came out of my mouth, was this, "I am a bit sad too. This was a special part of this room, this house. What is so incredible is that we can NEVER really get rid of scripture. We have it written on the walls here, under this paint. We have memorized these verses so they are in our minds, and more importantly they are written on the walls of our hearts."
"Yeah. That's right. I will never forget those scriptures, Mom."
Mmmm...what a lesson for me. Lord, may your word be more than mere "decorations" in my life. May I be marked by your word, living according to it day and night. May the same be said of my children, my children's children and the children and that!

















4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vickie,
That was so beautiful to read. I remember the first time I visited your home and walked in Ashley's bedroom and saw all the beautiful scripture on the wall. In a few years you will think back to those wonderful memories and what a joy it was. I hope you will put pics of her newly decorated room on your blog. I love you and miss you!

Jeanine

Gayla said...

really really lovely, vickie.

The lady of the house... said...

awe, that is a hard feeling. change is good and fun, but hard. way to go Ashley, you will LOVE your new room!!! Can't wait to see it sometime!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Colleen said...

I can't wait to see pictures of the new room :)! This was a beautiful entry and spoke to me in a HUGE way, I think sometimes I allow scriptures to be "decorations" in my life as well, what a lesson!