Summer is Almost Over

This morning I woke up to the sound of 4 teenage girls giggling as they were in my kitchen toasting frozen waffles for themselves and for my girls. The NorthWood Church youth group has been in Superior this week serving our community - building a park, digging a trail, painting fences. . .

I went to the computer to check my daily sites and discovered that one of my close friends is hiking in Sapa today. They are on yet another trip to Vietnam where they are working with the education system in Hanoi. . .

Cool River's 7th group is leaving tomorrow afternoon for Hanoi. They will be installing a computer lab in the area where we work. . .

All of this activity is going on around me. It is such a blessing to be a part of it all. Yet, I must admit that there is a bit of jealousy that stirs inside of me if I allow it. I wish so much that I was going to be boarding the plane with our team tomorrow afternoon. It's hard to have such a love for a place and not get to be there to experience it with my friends.

But through it all, I am learning one really important thing - the work goes on without me. Sometimes I don't want it to. Sometimes all I want is for my hands and feet to be covered up in all of the "God activity" that is happening and if I can't be there, I want to soak in the jealousy of others who are getting to do what I want to be a part of. So wrong! Tell me about it. But that is the honesty of how I feel sometimes. And that is exactly why God gives me moments like this in which to learn.

Today I am learning that at this time in my life I have a very specific and important task before me and it has absolutely nothing to do with missions or travel or Vietnam. It has everything to do with my family. It is my family who needs me more today than my friends on the other side of the world. To be with Kevin and the girls is a huge God-given blessing. Tomorrow God may open up the door for me to go again. But not today.

Today. . .today is about ending the summer well for my kids. Today is about playing with my girls at the pool. Today is about getting ready to start homeschooling again next week. Today is about paying the bills and washing the car and cooking dinner again.

My life is significant. How I live my today will determine my tomorrow and the tomorrow of my family. And God is going to be active in my home today just as he is in taking others to other parts of the world to make Himself active and known there.

Today my misison is here - in Superior, Colorado, with my husband and kids. Maybe tomorrow it will be somewhere else. Today I will pray for my friends traveling to Vietnam to do what God has called them at this time in their individual lives to do. Tomorrow maybe it will be me. But not today. . . . . . the work goes on well without me. My today needs me.