My Brother

Today is my brother's birthday. How lucky am I? I get to celebrate two of my favorite people in the whole world in the span of two days!

So my brother and I... wow, have we gone through a lot together. We are close in age, so he has been my companion my whole life. He thinks he is older than me... but we all know the truth ;). However, as our sibling-hood has been growing into friendship, the things that I have been learning from him have me wondering if he was born first. It has taken me some time to see his wisdom.

My brother and I haven't had the smoothest past. We have had many fights, arguments, tears, harsh words, and anger displayed. He hit puberty just as I was coming out of it, and the way we handled ourselves were of course, completely different. Those several years were hard on us as individuals and as siblings. We didn't work well as a team. Our personalities are completely different, and neither one of us were mature enough to know how to deal with those differences. Talk about fireworks. We both distinctly remember our last big fight. We fought over socks. It's funny now, thank goodness, but neither one of us were laughing then. Oh, how much we have grown my dearest brother.

But now that we are old and wise (....ok... older and wiser), we are learning how to not only love each other, but like each other too :). It really all started to get better last year when my sister got married. My sister and I are really close, and she on several occasions kept my brother and I from "killing each other". When she left, my brother and I went through shock. Our peacekeeper was gone! Our mediator had deserted us for another (we still love her though). So, growing up had to happen pronto. Not in a bad way, but my sister getting married is what brought David and I together. We had to learn how to start being a team. We had to learn how to always support each other, even if we disagreed. Through that process, I started opening up to my brother- something that I had never done. He is a mastermind, so he always seemed to figure out what was going on in my life anyhow, but now I started to tell him willingly. As I began to open up, so did he. I learned a valuable lesson about trust from David. Sometimes you need to show the other person that you trust them before they can trust you. I have not been the best sister. There are more than many occasions that I have let my brother down, offended him, taken advantage of him... and I regret those things a lot. He did not have any reason to trust me. But I had to show him that I now wanted his trust- which meant I had to get out of my comfort zone and give him mine. All that being said, David and I started to become friends. I started to enjoy being with him more than I had before. I feel safe when he is around me. I know that David will take care of me, even in the most dangerous situations. He always has my back! He is one of the most observant people I know- he sees things that I don't. Because we did not get along very well, I would rarely ask him for advice because I was too prideful. But now that we have become friends, I use his wisdom and his ability to see things that I can't to help me be a better person. That's team work. Is he always right? No. Am I always right? No. Sometimes, neither one of us are right. But we are growing together- that's the beautiful thing.

I think David knows me better than any person in the world. He knows my weaknesses and my strengths. He knows when I've been hurt and when I'm struggling. He could always tell who I had a crush on. He knows what makes me mad. He knows what makes me happy. He knows my insecurities. He affirms me, but he also corrects me. He gives me second chances... and third and fourth and fifth when I've messed up. He is patient. He is a gentleman. He is incredibly handsome (Which seriously puts me into overprotective sister mode ;) ). He is observant. He loves people. He is a servant. David has been through tough things- really tough. I've seen him walk it out. I've seen him rise above the things that have kept him down for so long and overcome them. I've had to go through the awful experience of him being in life and death situations. The thought of not having David in my life brings tears to my eyes. I'm pretty sure I love him more than he will ever know.

David, I couldn't be there on your birthday, but I want you to know how much I deeply love you. There is a special bond that we have that I have with no one else in this whole world. I have four different bonds with my sisters, but only one with my brother that is unique and cannot be broken. You are on your journey, as am I, of discovering who you are, what you want in life, what you want to do, dealing with past hurts, looking forward to the future, being strong and content in your present. My desire is to see you keep on becoming a man after God's own heart. You have so much in you! You're not the loudest person, nor the most talkative- but there is a spirit of stability and strength inside of you that can change people around you. I don't know what you're going to do or be in life, but I can promise you that if you completely surrender your life to JESUS every day, and keep walking in His paths for your life, you will become the man that He has destined you to be.

And while you're on that journey, know that your sister has got your back every step of the way. I love you more than words can express. Happy Birthday!