Short Little Somethings

I was going to title this post "Little Nothings" but decided that if they're important enough for a blog entry then they don't really qualify as Nothings.

The first thing I wanted to say is that Caleb can officially crawl on his hands and knees (video to follow...eventually). The army crawl is much faster since it takes much more balance to stay up on all fours, but he seems to be crawling on hands and knees much more often now. He can also pull himself up onto just about anything. That's a problem when he grabs onto the kitchen cabinet door and pulls himself up with that one hand. Invariably the door opens slightly as he's not completely steady on his feet yet, and then the other hand grabs for something to hang on to which turns out to be the other edge of the door. Now, when he leans forward the door closes and fingers are pinched. Cries ensue, and what's a parent to do?! Maybe he should just start walking; then we wouldn't have pinched fingers. Instead we'd probably wind up with bruised knees or bumps on the head. Ah, life with our boy is so much more active than it was with just our girl.

The other thing I wanted to say is that I've made a new discovery about myself. I feel other people's emotional pains. Dan says it's empathy, and perhaps he's right. I don't just feel bad or sad for that person -- as in, "Oh, I'm so sad that happened to so-and-so" which I suppose is called sympathy. Rather, I feel their hurts in my heart as if they'd happened to me, so I pray for them, and most of those people will never know. I hurt for people who I heard about on the news or read about on somebody's blog or heard about from a friend of a friend, etc. Sure, I'm happy for people when they are happy, but for some reason God has given me a sensitive heart, and it hurts for people I love and people I've never even met. I don't typically cry when I read books or watch movies, but I ache for the real pain of people. Perhaps, I just get to help carry their loads. Maybe God eases their/your burdens by allowing me to take some upon myself. So, don't ever wonder if I care about your problems and hurts. I do care, and if you've shared them with me, you can bet that I've been praying for you.