Vacation, Love the Ones You're With -- 33 Days to Go

Every Friday until our vacation,
we will post items concerning our
upcoming vacation.

33 Days to Go.

The more we plan, the more our plans change. Now we are leaving a day earlier than we had originally planned. I'm glad I hadn't already reserved the rental car!

I have been both curious and amused to find during this process what each member of the family is looking forward to during the trip. Glen wants to visit Steinway Hall; Emmie is searching for the perfect Italian bakery in which to taste seven-layer cookies. Marie hasn't voiced any preferences yet, but I'm sure she will. As for me, I am looking forward to the whale-watching trip. I love being out on the water so much, I think this will be great fun.

Traveling with people is a way to find out so much more about them -- if you would like. It can also be a temptation to become frustrated or angry. (Let's face it, three Greek-Irish women in a car with one poor man for 23 hours, there will be temptation.) Especially when the four adults live so closely they don't mind vocalizing their different tastes and desires vociferously. So it has to be a choice to learn about each other and respect each other. As Paul says, "let each esteem other better than themselves."

I have come to understand more and more that in a practical sense, love is a choice. It doesn't always matter how we feel or even what we think. . .it matters what we choose to believe. When we believe what the Lord has said is true of us, then we can know and experience what He has said is true of us. The Scriptures tell us "His love is perfected in us." This is true not only in a future sense, but right now in our very spirits. May it be true in our rental car along those 1450 miles!