What is Your Story? I Want to Know
What is your story?
I want to know.
There are more that 7 billion people in the world. No two alike. Each person unique and wonderful.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in Your book.
Psalm 139:13–16
I live in St. Louis, where the first thing people ask when meeting someone new is . . . “where did you go to school?”
I did a Google search of the most common questions people ask when they meet someone and found the following answers:
- Where did you grow up?
- What do you do?
- Do you have children?
I’ve decided that although that tells a little bit about your life, it doesn’t really tell me about you. Unique wonderful you.
I want to know you.
- What makes you laugh?
- What makes you sad?
- What thrills you?
- What breaks your heart?
- What makes you angry?
- What frightens you?
- What is your favorite time of the day?
- What’s your best memory?
- What’s one thing you’d like people to know about you?
[Tweet “We share smiling selfies and pictures of lunch while carefully protecting our hearts.”]
We’re more connected than ever; yet I wonder if we’re not lonelier and less satisfied. We compare and contrast, talk about our children, spouses, parents, friends, politics, and…
But do we share our hearts. Who we are.
I love to read a posts where writers pours their heart into words. They’ve faced the fear of rejection or ridicule and still pour out into those who crave connection.
Some of us protect our hearts because we’ve been burned. We poured out and had it used against us, used to hurt us. And we’ve built walls of protection preferring safe surface conversations to real stories. But…
You and I were created for relationship—first to God and then to each other.
I want to know you. Your story. I don’t want to just know about you; I want to know you.
The Story of My Heart
- What makes you laugh? Rev makes me laugh. I think life is funny. So many things amuse me and it doesn’t take much to make me laugh loud and long.
- What makes you sad? Cruelty makes me sad. Words or actions. I grieve when I see people intentionally hurt each other. Yep, that makes me sad.
- What thrills you? God’s love thrills me. His patience with me overwhelms me. Grace and mercy through Jesus awes me.
- What breaks your heart? Children who live without their basic needs being met. Without family, healthcare, food, clean water, etc. That, and anyone choosing life without Jesus.
- What makes you angry? Lying makes me angry. Ooh, I hate lies.
- What frightens you? I’m not afraid very often, which is amazing considering I grew up afraid of almost everything. I have moments of fear, but get over it pretty quickly.
- What is your favorite time of the day? The end of the work day about 5:30 or 6, when we sit down to talk over our the events of the day.
- What’s your best memory? Just one… Hm. The first time Rev and I said, “I love you.” And yes, I said it first. Well, kind of. I sang along to “This Girl’s in Love With You” playing on the radio, and he whispered in my ear . . . “I love you, too.”
- What’s one thing you’d like people to know about you? I have more scars than people know and I’m tougher than people think.
Now it’s your turn. You can leave your answers in the comments or write a blog post and link it here next week. Because I really do want to know you.
What’s your story?
Deb, I love this! I wrote the questions down and thought of answering them here in a comment, but I have to give it some thought. And I also think it might be kind of cool to write a blog post and share this with my readers (about me, not you) and post it here next week. You may have started a chain! Great idea. Oh, and I chuckled at your favorite memory. Adorable. I said it first too. Turned out he had been practicing all week and I ruined it for him. I’ve been speaking first ever since. Sigh…I’m learning.
Mary, I’m still speaking first too. The other night I told Rev I’d get a better daily count if I had a Fitbit for my mouth not my steps! I look forward to your post next week! Have a wonderful weekend!
Stories make the world go round. Actually, in the face of our testimonies, they overcome the world. Quite powerful! Great idea, Deb. My link today is part of my story….more next week. I’ve also started a monthly post called “Your Stories” which runs every 1st Tuesday. This past Tuesday was Yolanda Perry. There are some amazing followers of Christ in our blogging community. Have a wonderful weekend.
I love your answers and I love getting to know you better Deb. This comment box is not big enough to share answers to all your questions but my sons make me laugh until mu stomach hurts, it hurts me to see so much hurt and confusion in our world and my favorite time of day is when I catch the sunset glowing brightly before it slips away. Have a beautiful weekend.
Deb-I love when you join us at The Weekend Brew. Have a blessed week.
I really enjoyed getting to know you better today, Deb! I’m taking a short break from blogging as I have to get my last novel edited for publication, but when I get back, I just may try this exercise.
Have a blessed weekend!
I’ll try to answer some of them Deb. I grew up in West Mifflin, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh. (Go Pirates!). I am a pastor and have been for over 40 years. I have two children (girls) ages 40 and 35 and one grandson. My wife and I celebrated our 42nd anniversary in June.
*Laugh? Just about anything. I love life and am really easy-going and laugh easily. I absolutely love spending time with my grandson.
*Sad? People living in the chains of religion and unaware of the freedom of grace.
*Thrill- Seeing people free. I also thrill at being able to ride my Trek bike.
*Breaks my heart?- unhappy children. Battered and abused women. Slavery. People turning away from God.
*Angry? Intolerance of those who speak of tolerance.
*Frightens me? Nothing really except I do have a concern about our lack of preparation for retirement brought on by my early foolishness. I also do not want to be a burden to my children as I age.
*Favorite time? Early morning or when I am riding or when I am with my family.
*Best memory? I have too many but the births of my two girls would be right up at the top. My wedding also.
*One thing? i have a huge heart and care deeply about people. And I want people to know I love Jesus more than anything and He motivates me.
Love the questions! They could probably each be their own blog post… Thanks for sharing with the Pinterest Love Weekend Pin-It Party 🙂
It always excites me when the christian world and the secular world collide. (Because let’s be honest, it’s all God’s world) I was talking about fiction with a friend the other day. She never really understood why people enjoyed fiction so much. The reason was obvious to me though. Good stories come from good characters. You can have the most involved, twisted plot ever, if the characters are boring, they story is boring.
The same can be said about our world today. We see the ‘plot’ of people’s lives on the daily. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest; we always see what people are doing, and almost no one really cares. I know I scroll down my feed ignoring most everything I see.
What catches people attention is when you want to relate and understand them. Authenticity and kindness will take you far in the quest for deeper friendship. This is what people want, no matter what religion or faith they have.