Weeping...

So....for those of you who know me pretty well...you know that I do not cry much. But this past Saturday....I was weeping because of something my younger brother, Daniel, sent me. He had told me a while back that he was working on a Christmas present for my brother and me but didn't really say what it was....well he emailed me with an image file attached just saying, "here's part of the present". I started to open the image in a new window....and the processing of the dial-up internet reception at my parent's house was just taking too long...I wanted to see the whole image right away...but as it started showing up...I just starting getting that feeling of wanting to cry. It is an image of a culmination of beautiful pictures of my brothers and me from when we were growing up and our many travels...all together in a collage! I began to cry....and just cry.... and then I went to my room to journal about it and I wept even more! There's this feeling of when I cry that I just get dry in the mouth and such...almost like I can't breathe....and I just cough a bit (or maybe that's cause I'm a little sick), and the tears that won't stop coming, and I get this headache pain...but only for a little bit....I hadn't experienced this kind of weeping in a while...and it all came back to me soo quickly! There were soo many memories that came to my mind through seeing those pictures: Disneyland, family reunions, our travel trailer, fighting & getting along, summer vacations, and having fun together as a family! As much as my brothers and I are all far away from each other physically/geographically, I have never felt as close to them as I have than these past week! They bring soo much light and happiness in my life and I love them so much. I recently got an email from my older brother, Joel, just saying the he misses me from when I was up in Seattle visiting him and that he hopes I can go back again and visit him and that he wants to come visit me here and meet my friends. That was soo encouraging and such a joy to read that from my brother! And then also just getting this picture from Daniel was just a blessing to receive!

So I am worried about my commitments with Servant Partners and how that will affect me getting to see them and how our relationship will be affected...but I feel that Satan is putting some of those thoughts in mind....and I just pray that God will continue to take control of our relationships with one another and keep us connected....even though we are separated by miles.

I feel that this is how God intended family relationships to be....soo good that we weep over the greatness and the love that exists among family members! I feel that weeping IS a gift from God....that it is not something to be shameful about....and that it can be used for times of difficulty in pain...but also for tears of joy when there is so much greatness that we don't know what else to do besides smile and weep, which was what I was experiencing.

Then I got to thinking about weeping....and if other mammals experience weeping and such...apparently, no other animals weep for an emotional reason... I looked it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crying
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears#Types_of_tears

And how did God choose the emotion of crying....that salty water would leak from our eyes because we are sad or happy? There is a passage in the bible saying that "Jesus wept" and it is significant because it is the shortest verse in the New Testament....and also that it helps describe that Jesus was truly human...because He had human emotions!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_wept

So interesting what you can find on Wikipedia :)

*Here is the picture that Daniel sent me!


*Prayer Request:
-We are going to be turning in our information for our credit check soon with the apartment we are hoping to get in South LA for Servant Partners. Please be praying that everything goes smoothly...and that hopefully we can move in this weekend! :)