Planes, Trains & Automoblies

I inherited my love of travel from 2 people...my mother & my Aunt Lynda. I remember at various times in my childhood, my mother expressing a desire to "see America". She used to talk of renting an RV, before the passing of my grandparents, & taking all of us (including Nanie & Grandpa) on the grand adventure of seeing our great country. Then there was my very "trendy" aunt from Chicago who became an Airline Stewardess (now we know that profession by the PC term Flight Attendant) back in the glamorous days of travel. For many years that was "what I wanted to be when I grew up" because of the many benefits of flying for free. Soooo, here I am (and we've already established that I'm grown up) with that same inner bug to travel. And not so much just for myself (my heart always hears Europe calling), but a desire to give the gift of travel to my children. Dan has a much more practical outlook, "Why see another country when you haven't first discovered your own?" I didn't have a good answer, so for now the only stamps in my passport are the ones I get watching "House Hunters International". Instead, I started mapping out "Road Trips" to get in as many states as possible during these last years available with the kids. "Available?" you may be thinking, "Your kids are young!" Yes, they are, but time to travel seems to be slipping away from our calendar years and instead filling with things like sports & friends. Don't get me wrong...loooove sports & totally get the social adolescent years...I guess I just want to go for it before high school life kicks in:) My resources include Our 50 States by Lynn Cheney, Top 10 Places to visit, The Food Network website (TripleD, Giada's Getaways, Chef vs City & The Road Tasted) & our own family history. We'd only checked off California & Oregon until last Christmas, when the gift to our kids was luggage with an airline ticket to Chicago inside. The look on their faces was priceless...our trip an amazing success...so begins our adventure to Discover America!

Mission Impossible

Your mission,should you choose to accept..."Train up a child in the way he should go & when he is old he will not depart from it" Prov.22:6, in other words...Motherhood! "Yes!" we say without hesitation. Since the beginning of time women have embraced this honorable role & relished in this ministry. I have tried, in the more recent years to see my family as not just a duty, but my pre-imminent ministry & put them before my other personal endeavors. The reality of that goal is not always the case because let's face it...sometimes it's easier & more enjoyable to serve anyone but your own family. BUT switching my perspective to a Mission Field (which we are doing this summer by looking how the Great Commission includes very practical & somewhat overlooked locations) helps me be mindful that this is work...work that will in due time produce a glorious harvest. We've just survived the baby/toddler years (we are exhausted, somewhat spiritually dry from missing fellowship as a result of the ever appearing runny nose, with the exception of a few, lacking in personal style & missing some brain power-I always think "I used to be smart?") We keep hearing "Oh, just wait for those latter teen years." Our brains can't even go there yet because we are in the Here & Now... the Trenches I call it...AKA our Mission Field! It's a place where I have no furlough, no increase of attendance, and (because I'm a woman)constant comparisons of other missionaries who are doing things differently than I am. It's daunting! I think we can all agree that the reality of raising up this next generation is very different than the way we pictured or imagined it before we had children. Yet I'm sure we all have the same goal, that our children would "grow in grace & knowledge of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ" II Peter 3:18. I am always struggling to find the balance between teaching them a "works based motivation for living" because your house has to have rules & a "love/grace relationship" with the Father who is waiting for them to just COME-minus the finger pointing which I tend to do. I have to remind myself that they are trying to work out their salvation also, BUT with their age brain & experience. Oh, how we need to be in prayer for their salvation & prayer to properly represent the Lord to our kids! I have been stretched, exhorted, & humbled by my children. I do things that I swore I would never do, like yell or freak out on my kids. I know I love my children, but I struggle with the "like" part. Some kids are just more difficult to raise than others, not worse just different. To which my mother reminds me that the Lord gave each one of us our specific children because they needed us, with all our quirks, faults & strengths, as their mother to point them to Christ. We can't do it in & of ourselves, "it's by My Spirit says the Lord" Zech 4:6 and when we don't have the answers (which is often) we need to go back to what we know...the Word. Deut 6:4-9 I view as our directive. "Here, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, & with all your might. And these words which I command you shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, & when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, & they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house & on your gates." How that plays out for each of us will be different. Oh, how we need prayer to be faithful to the call on our house & our children! This mission field is also crazy-busy...our day it seems is filled with morning routines, school, homework, sports/activities, dinner & evening routines...add a pet, some kid's friend drama, discipline, work, & church...and whoa! Then get up & do it all again:) We need to make sure that we don't get so wrapped up in our kids schedules or our extra ministries that we overlook our husbands. "Marriage is honorable among all" Heb 13:14a & the world says otherwise. I've seen in the past & present, divorce creep in during these school years because of unintentional drifting apart. One of the greatest gifts we can give our kids is a healthy marriage, because it mirrors Christ's relationship with the church. Oh, how we need prayer to be faithful to our marriage! One of the things I love is when women, especially the ones who have gone before us, share with each other their true struggles & needs and then PRAY for each other...authentic fellowship. It breaks down barriers & perceptions and gets us off our "Pity Party Island". Let's face it, none of us have it all together...that's just an "OC Legend". Oh, how we need to stop being afraid of asking for prayer...it's our greatest weapon! I am a constantly humbled mother of three...saved by GRACE. When it comes to mothering school age kids, "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Ps 27:13. I'm still living, God is faithful, & His Words are true. Sooo I accept & go forth a M. O. M. with a refreshed perspective... a Mom On a Mission!