[The wife of noble character] is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come (Proverbs 31:25).

How can you be strong when you're feeling so worn down by three small -- but extremely energetic -- children?  They run around the house, oozing noisyness with every footfall.  They ask endless, interweaving streams of questions that are exhausting in both their scope and their volume.  They are always asking for more food, more food, more food.  They need to be picked up, pulled around, washed in every crevice, but the only response you get is whining and complaining.  The kids love to paw at you, worm their way onto your lap, wrestle you, wriggle up against you for no reason at all.  It's draining in a way that can never be explained as much as simply experienced.  At the end of the day, there is just no strength left.

How can you be dignified when you can't even find time to take a shower in the morning?  Or even if you manage to squeeze in a shower, its effects are quickly wiped away by grimy fingers run through your hair, frenzied trips to and from school, and three wardrobe changes due to cleaning up after an accident in the kitchen, bathroom, or backyard.  Dignity is hard to come by when your speech is peppered with toddlerisms like "going potty" and "happy heart" and "no-touch."  The job of parenting three small children can seem much more demeaning than dignifying.  Dignity, in fact, feels like it's light-years removed from your day-to-day existence.

But somehow -- some way -- laughter allows rejuvenated strength and restored dignity to creep back into life, even with a house full of scribblety ankle-biters.  It's almost as if taking yourself less seriously allows you to actually become more composed, under pressure.  The physical and mental attrition of parenthood can be extreme; but with a bit of a sense of humor, a successful, optimistic, light-hearted navigation of all the pitfalls of parenthood can make it seem like you're wearing clothes of strength and dignity.  It can be a beautiful testimony of noble character, even if it's not always easy.  To find the means to survive and succeed, a parent needs to depend heavily on God and live in a disciplined way.  But if this can be done, strength, dignity, and laughter can cover you from head to toe, and outside to inside.