An excerpt from Matthew Kelly’s – 7 Levels of Intimacy – The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved.
David Anderson lived in Boston with his wife, Sarah and hree children Rachel, Shannon, and Jonah. He was very successful businessman, and one of the rewards of his success was their summer home on
Martha’s Vineyard. Sarah and the kids spent the whole summer there, while David usually spent part of each weekend and always came for the first two weeks of July.
One summer a few years ago, he was driving out to the beach at the beginning of July when he made a promise to himself. For two weeks, he was going to be a loving and attentive husband and father. He would make himself totally available. He would turn off his cell phone, resist the temptation to be constantly checking his e-mail, and make himself completely available to his family and a genuine experience vacation.
You see, David worked too much. He knew it. Everyone around him knew it. When you love your work, that’s one of the dangers. When you rely on your work too much for your identity, that’s one of the pitfalls. From time to time, David felt guilty about how much he worked, but to brush the guilt aside by making the excuse that it was necessary. Sometimes he overcame his feeling of guilt by calling to mind the many privileges and opportunities that his wife and children were able to enjoy became worked so hard.
Did rationalizations succeed? Only temporarily. But this vacation was going to be different. David was going to be attentive and available.
Is this you? Have you felt this about your spouse, or children? Being present in your life? This sort of activity takes a higher level of intimacy that only you can make.
As these lyrics suggest in Luther Vandross’s song “A House is Not a Home.”
A room is a still a room, even when there’s nothin’ there but gloom
But a room is not a house and a house is not a home
When the two of us are far apart
And one of us has a broken heart
We will be exploring the 7 levels of Intimacy over the next several posts.
We could start by asking the question, what does Intimacy mean to you?
iLoveStrong 