Camping and all it brought along

I’ve been away from my family, doing some camping, these past four days. That shouldn't be a big deal, but it really taught me something. When ever something would be said that would cause me to remember my family I would start missing them so much. It actually surprised me. Maybe it's because I'm the closest to Chris out of everyone, but I started freaking out when I would miss him. If I'm missing him this much while on a camping trip, what will it be like next year when we go our separate ways? I started thinking that maybe I wouldn't be able to handle it. Maybe I wouldn't be able to be joyful during that time. Maybe I would be miserable. During the trip I was listening to a biography of Corry Ten boom. It talked about how she didn't have the grace to deal with the possibility of her loved ones dying until she was at that point in her life when she had to go through it. The Lord reminded me that I will not have the grace to say goodbye to Chris next year, until next year. God will not give me more grace than what I need for what I'm facing today. Not only will God give me grace to "get through it" but He will give me grace to thank Him and rejoice in that hard time. If I don’t rejoice through that, it will be sin. My lack of joy will be evidence that I lack faith in His perfect will. It would demonstrate that I don’t believe that He is all that I need. That which is not of faith is sin. Ya'll will have to remind me of this next year when I have to exercise this faith! :)

The time that I spent camping with my friend Shay and her family was fun, encouraging, edifying and relaxing. We really had such a good time together. Being around other Christians for an extended period of time always shows me my weakness very clearly and very quickly! When I hesitate to say a word that is not edifying or have a negative attitude it serves as a warning to tell me that I should refrain from those things even when others aren't "watching" me. The Lord really convicted me about my motives and especially about how my speech should always be pure and edifying. So hold me accountable guys. The next time I go to say, "What the heck" or "Oh my God" feel free to slap me upside the face. Really guys!

Shay and I had a blast together. It didn’t matter if we were going through the ice caves, swimming in the creek, playing hand and foot, watching movies, braiding our hair, picking up hitchhikers, watching the parade, catching ants, enticing "doodle" bugs, roasting marshmallows, doing dishes or reading the Bible, we had an awesome time doing it together. The top phrases of the trip were: "Life is good; I've got my dew rag." "Help! I'm losing toe power." "Swimming with that bag of ice." When you pay for showers you learn to cover your greasy hair with a "dew rag." The other phrase is what I screamed as I was climbing up a log in the creek while losing my flip flop. As for swimming with a bag of ice, um....that includes a blonde moment of mine that I don't care to share with everyone! ;) Only two unpleasant things took place the entire trip. First, I got stung by a bee and had a reaction to it. I really don't understand. I've been stung plenty of times before and never did I have any kind of a reaction to it. But oh no, when I'm camping with another family I get stung and start feeling all dizzy and nauseous. Nice. My hand swelled up because I couldn't get the entire stinger out. Ah well. Then today as we were driving back, the car over heated. Real nice. It's a long story, but two hours later the women in children were in a reliable car, driving home. The guys got to stand for another hour in ninety degree weather waiting for the tow truck driver. Well, there's an overview. I'm off to crawl into my clean bed and sleep without a beanie, double shirts, double sweat shirts, flannel pants and wool socks!