Tender Means Strong

Another 5 Minute Friday with the Gypsy Mama and other writers. Aren't Fridays great?

Around here we write for five minutes flat on Fridays.
We write because we want to, not because we have to. We write for fun, for joy, for discovery.
We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.

Word for the day?

Tender

Dad cried when something broke my heart. Still does. He and Mom would lay in my little twin bed with me, stroking my hair, and encouraging me.

"This too shall pass, baby girl," Mom would say.

Tender.

As a child, everything is larger than life. Literally. As an adult, size shrinks, but lessons, situations, and friendships remain the same as my childhood perspective. Larger than life. Figuratively.

My parents have weathered it all. Through broken hearts and shifting friendships, through victories and graduations, through interviews and constant rejection.

"This too shall pass, baby girl." Both a reminder to treasure the moment and release it to Jesus.

Still, as an adult, dad cries when my heart breaks or when I celebrate a major feat. Mom still cheers or quotes her mantra. And I better understand the love of the heavenly Father for me, how He loves me through my victories and what I perceive as defeats but in reality are the prequel to better plans. He cries when my heart breaks and cheers when I celebrate.

Why?

Because His love is tender, like my parents. I understand it because I know theirs. It's tender and strong. It rebukes, redirects, challenges, and cheers. Never a sign of weakness.

Tenderness demonstrates strength. One doesn't exist without the other.


"How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure that He would give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure."

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3: 17-19