ouch

There are very few times I voluntarily experience pain - whether physical or emotional. Generally, this is probably a healthy impulse but at other times it's better to experience the short-term pain for the long-term gain. Birthing labor is a good example - all my girlfriends say it's the worst pain they have ever, ever experienced. They seem to think the outcome is worth it. :) My case in point - Thursday I went to the dentist. It hurt so much. I wish I could have asked for local anesthesia. You know your mouth is being raped when there is blood on the dental hygienist's glove and when you spit at the end there is lots of red and many strange squiggly things. I don't know if I want to know what those squiggly things are. After all this pain, what do I do? I schedule another appointment for 6 months. Because my wimpy insurance only covers one visit a year that's what I've been doing, but my experience was so aversive that I have this strange hope that if I go every 6 months at least the pain will not reach that level again.

The bad news: it's a rainy weekend. The good news: our friends are coming from Boston. While most of my friends are now married, they are still rather new in the parenting arena. This will be our first visit with our friends bringing their son along (ten months old). It seems like it will be rather tricky business trying to leave the apartment due to baby's sleeping schedule. But it's okay - we love our friends and the main point is to see them.

Speaking of babies, one of Ezer's friends shared with him this week that originally she wasn't very gung-ho about having kids but her husband really wanted to. Everything changed for her once their first child arrived. Suddenly she even wanted more. She thinks it's unlikely that a change of heart for people like her will occur until the child actually arrives - which means going forward with having a kid is a leap of faith (because of that no-return policy).

I am supposed to have memorized Psalm 1 by today (my own deadline; the real deadline is next Sunday, but this week I've assigned myself to study for the oral exam portion of the Emmanuel Mercy Team theology training). I am about halfway there. Ezer picked a harder passage (there's a list to choose from), Romans 3:19-26.

Psalm 1

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in his law he meditates day and night.
And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous,
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.