Adventure

 

Adventure is out there.... If you have ever seen the movie "Up" you will know this phrase. I've been thinking a lot lately about life and the journey through it. While adventure is out there for those who seek it, there is also adventure in everyday life. I mean the average individual goes through so much in their life time it is down right unbelievable at times. Come on now, most people have things happen and experiences at different times in their life that you just can't make up! I love the movie "Up". It is funny and sad and the love shown through this old man for his wife is just sweet. She shows him in the end through her "Adventure" book (memory book) that her everyday life with him had been an adventure. (sorry if you have never seen it and I just spoiled parts of it but it is a must see anyway)

I was watching Bob the other day and smiling and thinking of all we have been through together for the past almost 27 years. It really has been an adventure. We have lived in four different states, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and now Missouri again. We have visited many other states, taken a trip to Hawaii and Cancun. Traveled across the country with our daughter from Washington state to Missouri. We brought two children into the world and raised them for God's glory and to serve him. I was told I would probably not be able to have children because doctors didn't think I could carry them due to a pelvic injury from a wreck. We got to watch both of those children get married this spring and summer and know that they waited for the one God had for them. It was very special to know that. God has allowed us to live out several dreams in our marriage by allowing us to have a farm in the country and horses and then guided us into the ministry. We have raised coon dogs, chickens, horses and now bees. We have built a house together (literally did our own contracting and much of the work ourselves ... like putting the fake rock on the fire place) We have been through surgeries, deaths of loved ones, been allowed to work for several years with teens at church (some days we sit and contemplate just what influence we had on them), been the pastor and pastor's wife of a church in Oklahoma, been on staff to learn more in Arkansas, Bob has taught in a Christian school, I learned the ins and outs of how a rock quarry functions, we have now been church planters for 6 years and are empty nesters. We have learned a lot, grown and changed a lot and I hope and pray we continue to do so. All this IS adventure!

It has been a roller coaster ride really. Who doesn't like roller coasters?! There have been many downs and I mean way way downs but many ups and high ups also. Roller coasters are fun with their fast moving twists and turns and hills and thrills. Our life together has been awesome! Fun, laughter, tears, scares, romance, excitement, joy...adventure! Are there things I wish we hadn't had to go through? Sure, some times were hard, very hard. But working in our garden and canning things together, learning about bees and honey,  and growing in our knowledge of God's Word and growing as individuals and learning more about each other every year and every day. Life has been an adventure. I don't feel the need to always be doing something that it is thrilling or exhilarating such as traveling, or mountain climbing or exploring a new land (though I'd enjoy that too) I'm content and feel that my life has been and is an adventure. Even though some days are "same old same old", there is actually comfort in that too. Familiarity is comforting...sustaining. In a world that is ever changing (and not necessarily for the better) it is comforting to have same old same old at my house with the man God gave me many years ago.