I feel most loved when…

Have you ever tried to answer that question for yourself? It’s a great question that can reveal things that have been hidden in your consciousness.

This week I read of one family’s experience of asking that question of their children. 12 Questions I Ask My Kids Every Year

In this Vincentian Mindwalk, I share their experience and what they learned. I also share how it triggered a fresh appreciation of “The Word became flesh.”

I Feel Most Loved When…

“My wife and I recently sat down with each of our children and asked them to finish this sentence…  “You feel most loved by me when _________________________.”

“Here were their responses (in their own words):  I feel most loved by you when…

• You notice when I do things right.
• We spend time together by ourselves.
• You ‘step up’ and do things with me that no one else wants to do with me.
• You play baseball with me in the backyard.

“I’d have to say, those were some pretty simple, yet really good responses that helped my wife and I to be reminded of the importance of making sure we are speaking our child’s love language in the way that they understand it best.

Unpacking love language

“making sure we are speaking our child’s love language in the way that they understand it best.”

A light went on! Isn’t that at the heart of the revelation of “the word became flesh”? God sees and understands me even at my worst.

“in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe” (Hebrews 1:1)

Jesus walked in our shoes as one of us, even, and especially, as the least among us. He “gets” us as one of us in all things.

He experienced and understood the deepest fears and longings of his sisters and brothers.

Jesus experienced the full range of being human … from the total helplessness of conception to the inescapable reality of death.

The Word became flesh to show us in a living example what it meant to be aware of being loved by our Creator and loving our sisters and brothers.

God gifted us by listening and speaking

“Taking time to listen to the heart of your child is one of the best ways you can gift yourself to them during this holiday season.”

Our Creator gifted us by listening from within human existence.  Jesus took time not just to listen to the deepest longing of his brothers and sisters.

He was profoundly aware of being loved by the Creator in the messiness of ordinary life. That messiness included suffering the most profound physical and emotional pain of suffering and dying on a cross.

That is the deepest kind of listening to our heart! The Word listens from within the full range of human experience.

But God also speaks to us in the universal language understood by all human beings. The language of how another human being treats us!

Breaking the cycle of violence, dancing the dance of love

Jesus showed us what it would look like to break the cycle of violence rather than perpetuate an “eye for an eye.”

 The people of the Old Testament longed for the reversal of roles. They thought God’s kingdom would mean they would be on top. The mighty would be knocked from their thrones.

But Jesus met the abuse of power with the power of forgiving love from a cross. He showed us that the worst suffering and death cannot separate us from the love of our God….and of our sisters and brothers. WE TOO WILL RISe!

Jesus gave us the example of the gift of himself rather than perpetuating the violence of Cain and Abel. By meeting our worst violence with forgiving love he showed us how much God loves us!

Any of this resonate with you?