day no. 15,495: my wife at 35

Happy Birthday, Paige Van Voorst!

Thirty-five times you have been at this place. You were born at this very spot in the universe. The mile marker of your point of entry is right here waiting for you. This is where the world was when your lungs took in its air for the very first time.

While this birthday puts you on the fence of forty, I still think of you as a young woman. You have a perpetual youthfulness about you even as you age. You have the best of both. You are maturing and growing and are in many ways not at all like the young woman I first met in the Cornerstone Church foyer circa 2005 and in other ways you are still just as playful and sharp as I've always known you to be.

You have always been, in many respects, the older women of Titus 2, only now you have the age and experience to back it up. You like to teach and have much to offer and as your chronological age begins to better match your maturity, you are finding more opportunities to naturally flex that gift set. I'm excited to see how God will continue to use you to bless and shape others in teaching another generation to love their husbands and children, beginning with the generation that lives under our roof.

I love the home that you have made for us: the food we eat, the decorations we see, the scents we smell, the colors that surround us, etc... You make our home somewhere we all want to be and then you go the next mile and invite others hospitably into it. We entertain and educate. We disciple over dinner because of all your hard work. Thank you! I love being your husband and having you be the mother to my children. I am blessed because of you. We all are. 

Happy birthday.

Proverbs 31:27-31

She looketh well to the ways of her household, 

and eateth not the bread of idleness.

Her children arise up, and call her blessed; 

her husband also, and he praiseth her.

Many daughters have done virtuously, 

but thou excellest them all.

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: 

but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands; 

and let her own works praise her in the gates.