I love moments when I become a kid again, I find that camping aids this transformation. At home I am practical, focused, efficient: I'm an adult. At camp, however, I can be excited about roasting my food over a fire, chasing a frog through the wet grass, spending hours wandering a beach in search of - fun, and nothing else. *sigh* This brings a peaceful satisfaction to my soul.

Don't get me wrong, I can be very childlike at home as well. *snicker* The moments are seemingly more abundant and alive with excitement when we are out-of-doors.





I don't have very many pictures from this camping trip, sadly, I did not bring my camera out in the rain very much.

So, I think i'm done with the trip memories... on to this past week.

i have been attending a revival at a local church this week. The kids and I went for a couple evenings, and today Dave came with us for the entire morning. Sessions focused on stewardship, marriage, parenting, setting aside the old and putting on the new. All of the messages were excellent reminders of how to live our lives daily to serve our Master, Jesus. Every lesson pointed to the purpose of life being the glorification of Jesus. I love that. The Truth, i mean.

Marriage, it's for His glory.
Children/parenting, it's for His glory.
For this reason it is so important to be INTENTIONAL ( probably my favorite word, and definitely a key to any philosophies i hold in all of life's arenas). Why? Because we are to represent Christ to those around us in our marriage and in our parenting. We are a picture of His unconditional love, redemption, and forgiveness in our relationships here on this rock. Doesn't that send chills down your spine? I love that goal, that aim, such rich purpose.

Something that I would like to implement from the lessons this week is a family prayer journal. My lovely sister has been doing this, and now that it has been brought to my memory again - I truly want to attempt consistency in this tradition. One of the speakers mentioned something very powerful to us all: That he could tell us why God is real by explaining creation or the proof in the Bible, but more powerful to his own life is the working of Jesus he has seen through his families prayer life. Every January first his parents would write out a list of things they wanted to pray for that year, then a year later they would revisit those, see what had happened, and make a new list. Through that faithful labor, he saw so many answered prayers (examples: the salvation of his relatives before dying, money for school, a van to make room for their growing family) that God was made incredibly real to him.
.powerful.

What a joy to be together as a body of believers for many hours over the week. Now to get to the hard work of praying for revival to continue in the hearts of those who love the Lord. :)