#39 "I hurt when you hurt"

We had just walked across the Chick-fil-A parking lot back to the car, all 5 of us holding hands, and I was carrying Brighton.  We looked like windy laundry drying on a line, full of energy and stories.  Then began the process of getting little people into carseats.  Grey went first and Ty was right behind him officiating the seatbelt.  That left Joy and little Eden, Brighton and me standing outside the car while I savored the Brighton time.  Inside Chick-fil-A, Eden played this little game where she’d stoop down and put her face close to the ground.  She did the same thing in this moment, and then I glanced away.  I heard a bump and my eyes went straight to Joy.  Looking at her face, she had clearly just been bumped by something and it hurt a lot.  But I couldn’t see what it could have been.  Then I looked at Eden, who was in the pre-scream silent period, frozen for a moment reeling in her pain.  Eden had bumped her head on the way up on the edge of the car door, but I got to see the pain first in her loving momma.  

This mom feels pain when her kids feel pain.  Good parenting is scary.  Kids have the potential for oceans of pain, and good parents are locked in with no escape route.  Looking at both faces, Eden’s had surprise and anger in it, but Joy’s definitely had more straight up pain.  In that moment, Joy reminded me of the Lord.  He enters into our pain.  When we’re hurt, He hurts too.  What’s more, he took pain that we deserve upon Himself before we ever could experience it.  What a Father, what a Savior, Hero and Groom. 

#38 Riding Hope

A hope train has me,
Wandering, unstopping motion
Racing down tracks of fancy
Jolting to reverse in an instant
And the tears come.
These little truth tellers watch
As we tear out of the trees of another ruined dream.

I feel the shaking in my bones.
My train hunts another spindly track.
Oh that I could step off!
Be free to an unmoved peace.
No;
No.  No hope is no life.

Where is the true route with no turn arounds?
Real Path-Layer: Yours I seek.
Bring my wheels to Your color path
Your wisdom, Your temperance
must direct me onward.
Your way is curvy, is deep,
Narrow and hard to find.

I see not past these idle fantasies.
Please push me to Your places;
Rid my routes of these bent hopes.
Else I'll at last step off my track
Offering no past but daydreams.

(December 29, 2011)

#37 Conversation Sparkers

My favorite memories are conversations.  Great conversations start with great questions.  Here are some I have collected:

1. What's the best marriage advice for someone who's just getting married?
2. What's the first thing you do when you wake up?
3. What are two unique things you do everyday?
4. If you had to coach someone to live your life,  what would you say?
5. What person do you dream about meeting?
6. What vacation do you dream about taking?
7. What talent do you dream of having?
8. Who makes you laugh the most and why?
9. What's your definition of manhood/womanhood? 
10. If you could have one question answered about your future, what would it be?
11. What’s the earliest memory you have?
12. What’s your favorite family activity and why?
13. What’s your favorite story about your mom and dad?
14. When have you been the proudest to be in our family?
15. What’s the best trait you’ve picked up from your mom or dad?
16. What biblical family interests you the most and why?
17. What’s your favorite trait in each of your siblings?
18. What’s the first thing you want to ask Jesus in heaven?
19. What do you think heaven will be like?
20. What Bible character would you like to meet and why?
21. How can your talents be used better to help people?
22. What does grace mean?
23. How is God’s grace changing your life this week?
24. What about the Bible frightens you?
25. Who has taught you the most about the Bible?
26. Who is the most Christ-like person you know, and why?
27. What is your greatest win for God?
28. How would you like to be better this week?
29. What’s your greatest win in life?
30. How can I help you achieve your dreams this week?
31. If $ were no object, what would you do with the rest of your life?
32. How have your dreams changed over time?
33. If you could live anywhere, where? 
34. How do your dreams help other people?
35. How do you notice character when you see it?
36. What Bible character showed the most character, and why?
37. Who in your life exhibits the most character, and why?
38. What new activity would you like to try?
39. Who’s the most encouraging teammate that you have?
40. If you had the rest of the day free today, what would you do?
41. What was your greatest accomplishment last week?
42. Who can you encourage this week?
43. What role has God played in your disappointments?
44. Where do you turn to to deal with disappointment?
45. How have disappointments made you better?
46. If you could relive a day, which one would you choose?
47. How have I disappointed you?
48. If a person disappoints you, how likely are you to tell them about it?
49. What’s your dream adventure, and why?
50. Who’s your favorite actor, and why?
51. What’s your favorite thing to do with your friends?
52. What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
53. When do you behave the worst?
54. When do you behave the best?
55. How can you go about achieving your dreams?
56. What are your favorite healthy foods?
57. How are you a good friend to others?

#36 Purest in the Sight of God

“It is not necessary to say much to God.  Oftentimes one does not speak much to a friend whom one is delighted to see; one looks at him with pleasure; one speaks certain short words to him which are mere expressions of feeling.  The mind has no part in them, or next to none; one keeps repeating the same words.  It is not so much a variety of thoughts that one seeks in intercourse with a friend, as a certain repose and correspondence of heart.  It is thus we are with God, who does not disdain to be our tenderest, most cordial, most familiar, most intimate friend. A word, a sigh, a sentiment, says all to God; it is not always necessary to have transports of sensible tenderness; a will all naked and dry, without life, without vivacity, without pleasure, is often purest in the sight of God.  In fine, it is necessary to content one's self with giving to Him what He gives it to give, a fervent heart when it is fervent, a heart firm and faithful in its aridity, when He deprives it of sensible fervor.  It does not always depend on you to feel; but it is necessary to wish to feel.  Leave it to God to choose to make you feel sometimes, in order to sustain your weakness and infancy in Christian life; sometimes weaning you from that sweet and consoling sentiment which is the milk of babes, in order to humble you, to make you grow, and to make you robust in the violent exercise of faith, by causing you to sweat the bread of the strong in the sweat of your brow.  Would you only love God according as He will make you take pleasure in loving Him?  You would be loving your own tenderness and feeling, fancying that you were loving God.  Even while receiving sensible gifts, prepare yourself by pure faith for the time when you might be deprived of them and you will suddenly succumb if you had only relied on such support.”

Fenelon

yyyyes.

#35 Snippets

Here below are some snippet treasures I've picked up along the way: 

• Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.  –C.S. Lewis 

• The delight is incomplete until it is expressed.   

• Sorrow is exhausting.  

• I think the Lord prefers open spaces too.  

• The Lord is ready to bless you on all sides.  

• Pruning hurts.  

• Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.   

• Jeremiah 1:6-10 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth."  But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD." Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."   

• The Lord has so much to tell us.  

• Take care of yourself--for you are the Lord’s and He cares deeply about you. 

•  Watch your sin like a hawk.  Keep your guard up. 

• Sometimes the Lord’s healing comes through a really, really good nap.  

• The key to power in the Holy Spirit is obedience.  --Barbara Smith  

• If you study the Original, you won't be distracted by the fake.  --Barbara Smith  

• I hear you. That seems to be the story of life. Trusting the Lord in the limbo and the unseen and the uncertain and the scary.  But no hiding in caves and self-protection is aloud in following King Jesus... --Sissy

#34 Six Different Kinds of Love

Oh the bliss of being complex creatures.  Here, dear Eden are six different types of love & attraction:

• Storge--companion, low key, quiet, calm, less passionate
• Agape--unconditional, altruistic
• Manic--obsessive, selfish, seeking affirmation
• Pragma--compatible, logical, practical
• Ludus--flirtatious playful loves the game
• Eros--physical, passionate love (often initial attraction) 

When you think of all the different ways you love people, can you see which type you use when?  Can you think about which type you should use when?

#33 Cherished

One of the greatest gifts God has given me is to make me a Woodward.  But even more so for me, God created me to look just like my grandmother.  I hear it all the time--even strangers have come up to me and known who my grandmother is.

As I've grown up, my grandfather have always let me know that he thinks I'm so beautiful.  It kind of crescendoed to the point where whenever I'd see him, he'd just gaze at me and go on and on about how radiant I was looking.  It was deeply encouraging, but also somewhat strange because he was so over the top about it.  But I finally made the connection the last time he was in the hospital about a month and a half ago, so I asked him, "Granddaddy, do you think I'm so beautiful because I look just like your wife?"  Then he smiled one of his signature smiles and nodded.  I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more cherished than I did at that moment. 

Seeing how Granddaddy cherished his wife has impacted me profoundly.  I'm not an expert on family, but from what I can tell the most important thing a father can do to create a healthy family is to love his wife well.  And the standard he's set in our family for doing that, all the rest of the men have followed with their wives.  What a massive blessing to be raised in that environment that he pioneered.