This morning, my oldest daughter, Sari, who is 9 years-old, was digging through our journals. She wasn’t meaning to do anything conniving, but it was a little unsettling when she walked into our bedroom this morning reading an old journal of mine from my college days! I didn’t even know where she got it from! I thought all the journals I had were on one shelf in out living room, all in order of dates. I was wrong. Amanda and I told Sari that we could read parts of our journal, but only if we read them together.
Anyway, this got me thinking about my other journals and I grabbed one off the shelf and thumbed through it briefly. I discovered two things:
1 I was talking with a friend the other day about five things a man must know and embrace that I borrowed from Richard Rohr, but I could only remember one! All five of them were listed on one page in my journal that I saw while I was thumbing through my journal.
- Life is hard
- You are going to die
- You are not that important
- You are not in control
- Your life is not about you
I love these! I actually used these statements on a two-day canoe trip with some middle school boys several years ago. We would pause and link up our canoes and then talk about each statement one at a time. Very fruitful conversation!
2 I found 8 questions that I had wrote down to discuss with Amanda on our 2nd anniversary. I thought they were worth sharing!
- How has your heart been doing lately?
- When do you feel most loved?
- What are your thoughts on marriage now that we have been married for 2 years?
- What are a few things that you really like about us?
- What are a few things that you would change (or like to be changed) about your husband?
- What are a few things you would change about the way we live our lives currently?
- What are a few of your thoughts regarding sex in our marriage? Ideas?
- Any traditions that need to be instituted in our family?
I should ask these questions again now that we’ve been married for 12 years, have two children, a dog, and growing list of responsibilities and connections with people!
Thanks for bringing out our old journals, Sari!
