VACATION

Just the word "vacation" conjures up all kinds of emotions - excitement, anticipation, enthusiasm...There is just something wonderful about getting away. As a family we have had some great times, probably like you have, connecting some time either before or after the Southern Baptist Convention. We would take our girls with us to the Pastor's Conference and the Convention and they loved it. Actually, their favorite times were the Pastor's Conference with the preaching and singing... go figure!!! Anyway, now that they are grown and are on their own they don't get to go with us anymore to the SBC.

So this year we decided to take the 4th of July week for our time together. There were so many possibilities that we could have done. We could have gone to the beach or maybe to Disney World or maybe to New England... we chose Arkansas though. Why Arkansas of all places? Well, my sister who is married to my husband's brother and is also a pastor lives there. They have a beautiful home and great pool and they are our dearest friends. Our oldest daughter came in the weekend before with her husband. He stayed until Sunday and then had to go back to NC where he is in Seminary at Southeastern. He was having to work and couldn't take time off. So on Monday, Wendy and Randy and I drove to Murfreesboro to pick up our youngest daughter Beth, her husband Derrick and our one-year old granddaughter Maddie and headed to Arkansas. All of us were piled into the van and had a great time. It was so nice just being together with all of them.

When we got to Arkansas some of our other family members had arrived from South Alabama and we had a blast together. We had talked about some of the things we would like to do, but in the end we didn't do much of anything. We floated in the pool, grilled hamburgers, had a fireworks display, played cards and visited. What a vacation!!!

I am sure that the reason Jesus mentioned rest so often in His Word is because He knew that we would need times of refreshing. What an awesome God He is!!! Time away is time well spent - hope you can get away soon!!!