Spending date night downtown

J woke up in a "sensitive" mood today; crying because I put on sandals instead of his gym shoes and his swim suit instead of regular clothes. He just seemed a little off. So it was no surprise that he was not very happy going swimming today. He actually cried a couple times like when we were supposed to put his face underwater for the first time. He kept saying "I don't like that". J is really the only one in the class not liking it. He seems to have an independent learning style. He really seems to do okay as long as he can get used to it at his own pace and do his own thing in the water. He doesn't like the "forced" stuff which is how the class goes. Now that I have learned what his reactions are, I would have been much better off just introducing him to the water on my own instead of through a class. But I wouldn't have known that without trying. We only have 2 classes left, so after that I'll continue to work with him on my own.

In my time alone today, I continued in Luke 10. This is the famous story of the good Samaritan. I didn't remember that it starts off with an expert in the law "testing" Jesus by asking him what the way is to eternal life. Here is what he replies in verse 27: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' After that, Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan and asks which one acted as a neighbor. Both a priest and a Levite-those you'd expect to stop-left him to lay there while the Samaritan was the one who stopped to help. This man showed mercy to a stranger lying beaten and bleeding in the road. Beth (in Jesus, the One and Only) says that God demands passionate action. Again, I can recall times when I've been moved to do something like pay for someone's groceries who is in line with me using food stamps yet I've chickened out. I pray for passionate action instead of indecision when God brings an opportunity my way.

I decided to read my Ecclesiastes study for next week (chapter 6) and here are some of the highlights. This chapter tells us that hard times can become the best years of our life. Then he moves a different direction and says that someone can have all that they desire but God does not enable him to enjoy them so he is miserable. Yet someone else can be filled with gratitude in what they have realizing it is a gift from God's hand. The key he says is that enjoyment is a gift God gives us. Also, out of adversity can come wisdom which can protect from further trouble and pain. Bottom line, no matter what our circumstances, we must learn to accept and understand God has chosen or allowed them out of love and wisdom. What he sends us is always designed to benefit. It is good to hear this again and again, because it is so easy during my day to find myself grumbling about something. Like J having some temper time or being aggravated in the car. But just the other day when I was aggravated in the car by a slow poke, I had the thought what if God is somehow protecting me from an accident? Like what if by this delay I end up not being in the way of someone who is driving reckless? OK that may not be true, but it blessed me and calmed me down.

J was hungry for lunch. He has a whole PB & J sandwich (usually he only eats half). After lunch, we stopped at the library, got some ice cream and then checked out our missionary friends' yard sale. They gave me some children's learning CD-Rom's for free. Boy, was it warm out. Over 85, sunny and barely any breeze. J liked their daughter. She was reading a book under a tree and he sat down right with her to listen then was following her around a bit.

L and I got to have a lovely date night tonight thanks to our friends from our life group. They offered to watch J anytime and he has fun playing with them and their kids. They got him a wonderful birthday gift of a Thomas the Train set with several trains and a wooden track. He was so excited he was shaking. He loves Thomas but we've only watched videos since the trains are not cheap to buy. So we left him quite happy there. We headed downtown to State Street. It is a pedestrian mall that connects the state capital with the UW Madison campus. It is great just to walk and talk and the night was nice as it started to cool off. We decided on a new Indian restaurant (new to us) that was a bit of a walk which was good. Out of our time we decided we'd like to have a deeper focus in our relationship on how we are doing, how things are really going. In the past, it has helped to go through some type of relationship book together so we're thinking about doing that. It has been a really good conversation starter and it's helped us to keep communication flowing in our strong and weak areas. J was waiting at the door when we got back and was really excited to see us and show us what he was playing with. We ended up hanging out for a while and talking. Then we realized it was getting late although J was still wide awake. And now I'm starting to fade so I'm going to wrap things up.