It’s ‘Five minute Friday’ time! It’s inspired by Lisa-Jo over at The Gypsy Mama. The idea is that you write for five minutes flat on a topic, without worrying about whether it’s right or not. It’s kinda fun! Check out others’ interesting 5-minute posts on the topic by clicking on the button below.
GO
My toddler son has a vocabulary of seven words and is a prolific ‘sign-er’. This means that you have to look at him to ‘hear’ him. Sometimes he tells a story: he signs ‘nursery’, then ‘cry’, then ‘daddy’, then ‘home’; other times he signs emergencies (this morning was ‘hot’, ‘sick’ – we had to run to the bathroom).
You have to look at him closely to see what he’s saying. It annoys me when people don’t – and I can see there’s a story he’s just waiting to tell them, but they’re not looking at him.
Adults need this too. There are times when someone can look at you – and you know they’ve really seen you. They’ve seen your soul and your emotion and your story and they understand it. It’s very simple to do – it just takes pausing and looking deeply at someone.
Sometimes I have paused in my annoyance at someone and seen in their eyes their vulnerability – and I stop in my tracks. Other times I have been privileged to look at someone and sense their deep joy and contentment – and it spills over onto me.
‘Jesus looked at him and loved him'(Mark 10:21) – it’s one of my favourite sentences in the Bible.
STOP
Over to you:
- When was the last time that you stopped to ‘see’ someone and were changed by what you saw?
- When was the last time that you felt someone really ‘saw’ you?
Hi Tanya,
Really like this post! You’re so right on here–so often we just don’t pay attention to others. We’re busy and I think we end up looking past people and not really seeing them. It can leave the other person feeling empty. Thank you for bringing this to light–I will be thinking about this more now.
Thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog today. 🙂
In Christ,
Laura
Thank you! It’s always nice to hear when someone connects with a post. 🙂
Thanks for this Tanya. I felt ‘seen’ at church when a friend came and squeezed me on the shoulder. It was just a little gesture and she didn’t say anything, but it meant a lot.
Thanks so much for stopping by. I’m really glad that your friend did that. I know those moments when sometimes the saying nothing says more than saying anything – they just understand, and you know it. It’s really precious. I’m glad she could do that for you. (Sending you a virtual squeeze back) 🙂
What a beautiful post! Thanks for stopping by my blog….read your About Me and love you already. 🙂
Oo – thank you! It’s so nice to be loved!
When my kids were small, I often had the same compliment repeated over them. That they looked into peoples eyes when they talked to someone. I didn’t realize that so many people don’t until others began to point it out. Inspiring post for FMF.
That’s such a lovely compliment for your children – it is surprisingly rare, and a real gift that we can give to one another.
I’m really appreciating that you revisit my blog – I feel like we have a lot in common – and I love your writing! Looking forward to ‘hanging out’ next week! 🙂
What a beautiful post. I remember my oldest would sign and how frustrated I was when people wouldn’t look at him closely enough to see it. And what a perfect analogy to how we should see others. It’s heartbreaking to realize how often I don’t really look – at strangers or even sometimes my own family.
Thanks so much for your encouraging words – I’m so glad it connected with you! I really liked your FMF post – and enjoyed checking out your personal blog too. What a gorgeous family you have! Hope you have a great weekend.
Thank you for making me stop to think about this, because I am one who often does not stop long enough to really see OR hear what someone is trying to say. This definitely gives me something to think about and put into practice. Thank you!
Thanks so much for stopping by!