Skipping Through The Trials Of Life!

In Oklahoma, we live at the end of a long wooded, windy, gravel road.  It is peaceful, serene and simply picturesque.  At the end of the road sits John’s parents’ home.  We reside in the Cottage, as we like to refer to it, about 200 yards from them.  The view is spectacular and I have always said that if you can’t find peace here you simply can’t find it anywhere.

I have thought of myself as a city girl.  However, I was raised on a farm for the first 9 years of my life, with horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks.  It was a great life.  We had a small barn and I could saddle and ride my horse whenever I wanted.  I do so love the country, but I do love the city, too.  The theater, the restaurants and the shopping are wonderful.  Having lived all across America from Tulsa to Beverly Hills, New York City to Washington D.C., and from Alaska to Georgia, I have grown to appreciate the unique gifts of a small town.  For the last nine years, we dreamed of one day returning to Grand Lake, to the water and to family.

The country life is pretty wonderful and now as Fall approaches, the trees are turning and Winterspointe is more beautiful than ever.  One thing I enjoy most is reading my bible on the back porch and taking in the splendor of the view.   I also love to take my walks up the road to the mailbox with the Sons of Thunder.

One afternoon, I convinced the boys to take a walk with me up to the mailbox.  Now, Seth is my listener and he is like his father in that respect.  He wasn’t feeling well so he stayed home.   Caleb and Levi are pretty much me made over and over and over again.  John’s mother loves to say “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree” and she is right.  They love to talk and they have a comment for everything.  So needless to say, the beautiful and serene walk is full of chatter, laughter and a thousand questions that come at me at the rate of an AK-47.

I will often point to a tree and say can we at least walk to that tree in silence and enjoy the view for one moment.  Everyone agrees, but it is a Herculean task which comes to an abrupt stop the moment we reach the tree and then the questions return.

On this particular day, Levi was running down the hill a hundred miles an hour.  I could see a fall coming at any moment.  It seemed inevitable.  So I quickly urged him to stop and suggested maybe he walk or even just skip.  “SKIP!”  Levi exclaimed,  I’m not sure I can skip.  Don’t girls skip?  Boys don’t skip do they mom?”   You get the picture (AK-47 questions.)
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Now Caleb is my teacher.  It is his natural gifting, so he chimes in to agree this is a good idea and he will demonstrate.  I decided I , too, would demonstrate the lost art of skipping. The very, very  lost art of skipping.

Kid’s skip. Women don’t skip.  Men don’t skip!  If they did we would probably be calling the Hospital.  Kids are the ones who ought to be skipping.  With video games and TV, I am not  sure kids even skip… well especially boys.  But for that one brief moment we  SKIPPED.  We laughed, we teased, we joked and I remembered what it was like to be a child again in the woods and to just simply BE.  It was a brief moment in time where we just skipped!  I have to admit I was a pretty good Skipper!

The trials of life will surely come and they are usually right around the wooded bend in the road, often when we least expect them.  Our trial came in the dark, just one week later when one of the Sons of Thunder, Seth, became so sick he had to be hospitalized and have surgery.  We faced death that night, but we were ready and equipped with God’s word and a multitude of believers standing in agreement for his healing!  A small town rallied around with prayers , gifts and endless support. Prayers poured in from all over the country for our sweet son and for our whole family.   Seth has returned home from the hospital and we rejoice in his healing and health.

Yes, the trials will come, but we must not forget how to embrace our child-like faith and believe in the impossible and in miracles!  We must also remember to keep our child-like imagination and to laugh much.  We must also remember to never give up on the dream God has placed in our hearts.  Sometimes we have to take leaps of faith .  And sometimes maybe even skip!

Be blessed and and encouraged abundantly today