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Key Bible Verse: But as they came close to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry (Luke 19:41). Bonus Reading:Luke 19:41-46

Traveling overseas, our family drove past a series of rice paddies in South Korea. They stirred vivid memories. When you get ambushed in a paddy and lose a third of the men alongside you, you never forget it. Staring out the car window at those paddies, I envisioned our troops charging across the muck in Vietnam with enemy troops dug in on the tree line. I could almost feel the barbed wire strung along the dikes. "Wow," I whispered softly.

Susy leaned over and asked, "Phil, does this look like Vietnam?"

"Yeah, it really does."

"Tell us a little bit about it," she said.

"Well," I began, "this is the way the rice paddies were over there …"

She and our children had heard the story before, and I didn't break into tears. But their willingness to listen was a tender invitation to share something deep in my heart. Letting those feelings out has been part of the Lord's plan to bring healing to my life from my dysfunctional, broken home and my war experiences. Whatever you've endured, creating intimate relationships in which you can express your deepest feelings will help repair the damage.

—Phil Downer in Optimize Your Marriage

My Response: I'll get real with someone this week about where I hurt.

Thought to Apply: The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.—LAO-TZU (Chinese philosopher)

Adapted from Optimize Your Marriage (Christian Publications, 2003) by permission.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Thank You, Lord, for making me a complete person. Help me to embrace every part of my makeup that You created.

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