Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Blast From the Past

I found this in my journal files today and it brought me a smile. I thought I'd share since it's Valentine's week and relationship joys/struggles are on everyone's mind right now. I wrote this 4 years ago just for fun when David and I disagreed over how to write a Hollingsworth Family Value Statement(yeah...that particular project never did see completion...) Our little Hollingsworth family has grown quite a bit since then! Fun times! :)

David has reminded me MANY times in the past year that I say I value embracing adventure in life since we quickly moved our family from our cozy home out into the wilderness 8 months ago...sometimes your words come back to bite you in the rear huh?  He gets a big kick out of reminding me that I'm "adventurous" these days. :)


Meet David and Jacie



David likes Jacie.  Jacie likes David.  Mostly they find that they are on the same page in how they view the world and what values hold extreme importance in their lives. They agree upon:
-Being cheerful/seeking joy
-Being dependable
-Living with endurance
-Being honest/having integrity
-Courteous, compassionate, and sincere service
-Being generous with time, talent and treasure
-Living in love-letting love guide actions with others and lead their own family. Family being a priority for both David and Jacie.
-Being humble

While discussing these important values they come across many “ME TO!” smiley moments where they applaud their success as an awesome couple. Yay for David and Jacie. However, even awesome couples such as David and Jacie can’t agree on everything.  There are many, many things David and Jacie butt heads on and wouldn’t you know it, their list of family values hit a snag. 


 “Understanding, that is a facet of compassion right?” Jacie points out.  “Not really, that isn’t what I meant by understanding” David disagrees.  Well okay, off to the dictionary they go. 

Definition of UNDERSTANDING
1: a mental grasp: comprehension

2A: the power of comprehending; especially: the capacity to apprehend general relations of particulars.
2B: the power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories.

3A: friendly or harmonious relationship.
3B: an agreement of opinion or feeling: adjustment of differences.
3C: a mutual agreement not formally entered into but in some degree binding on each side.

4: explanation, interpretation

5: sympathy


Upon reading the definitions offered Jacie mentally sighs “here we go” as she immediately grasps which one David tuned in to and disagrees entirely.

 Enter the odd couple traits. 

“I am absolutely, not at all, in any way, putting know-it-all-pain-in-the-rear in our family value statement!” pours out of Jacie as tension bubbles to the surface, “that is not going to be a value that we strive to inflict upon…er…teach our children! "Now girls, listen carefully to me. You must seek to know everything from every possible angle and suck all fun out of any situation you happen across in life…no way!” nope, nope, nope.  David manages to regard Jacie quietly and listen to her mini rant with only a simple “what?” in response and our awesome couple moves along.  Shortly thereafter, they come across Adventurous on Jacie’s list. Second snag!  


“What exactly do you mean by adventurous?” David asks, carefully trying not to step on toes but showing disinterest in the idea. That question takes our awesome couple to Jacie’s list of values, complete with definitions, synonyms that reinforce her stance on the word and scriptures that support the value.  Sometimes, when it matters, Jacie is detail-oriented but the list is written in a crazy font to take the edge of organization off.

1.    Embrace Adventure- inclined or willing to engage in adventures or challenges. Accepting of risk, requiring courage. Unflinching, Resolute, Dream, Persevere.
1 Chronicles 28:20
Then David continued, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.


This leads to a fun conversation about the odd couple traits- those few things about one another that grate against personal preferences, much like nails on a chalkboard.  Reviewing those traits…

Revisit David
David is analytical.
David is slow to speak or take action.
David is a thinker.
David is stubborn.
David is quiet and introspective.
David likes to “logic the crap out of things”.
These are deeply programmed traits within David that he uses regularly in daily life.  







Revisit Jacie
Jacie is loud and spontaneous.
Jacie is impulsive.
Jacie is a feeler.
Jacie is quick to make a decision and kind of crazy.
Jacie is stubborn and can be mean.
Jacie likes to “dream big first, plan details last…if at all”.
These are deeply programmed traits within Jacie that she uses regularly in daily life.







Ugh…David and Jacie…Ugh. These differences cause problems.  Jacie says “let’s cut work for the day and go to the zoo! Maybe tonight after dark we can take the girls to the playground!"  David shudders.  David says “Calm down and think about this!"  Jacie narrows her eyes and prepares to battle. It doesn’t always work. Neither way is wrong, neither way will ever change (note the dually stubborn), sadly neither way meshes perfectly with the other. 




These differences lead to a torn discussion over the values of understanding and being adventurous- each super important to one but easily discounted by the other.  David mostly supports the synonyms for adventurous but dislikes categorizing them under adventure.  Jacie supports the idea of taking time to understand situations as they arise and figure out how to address them appropriately but not to the extent of non-action and joy-sucking, in moderation so to speak. 

 How do David and Jacie find common ground to incorporate these important things into their family?  Well…that’s another edition of See Spot Run, or See Hollingsworths Work…whichever you prefer. 


The End

Meet the author
Jacie is one half of the dynamic duo known here as the awesome couple. She is married to Mr. Awesome and loves him more than he knows. She’s happy and admittedly awesome, loves her family and enjoys life. She is often referred to as Mighty Mom by the two sweetest girls in the universe.  Why are you still reading this? Go do something productive!