God Created Us For Each other - Inspired Talk Today

In last week’s blog: “How Looking Back Can Turn Into a Bad Thing” I talked about how looking back into the past became a negative thing for me. This week I would like to focus on the positive aspect of looking back to my past, and the joy it still brings. Also, how determined I am to make new memories with the people I love. After all “God created us for each other”.

When I was growing up, my family loved to camp. Every summer whether we were renting a cabin on Long Lake, Maine, vacationing with my Dad’s family, Or roughing it in a tent with my Mom’s side of the family, camping was our thing.

However, years later after raising four children of our own, only one of them has any interest in camping. The other three for numerous reasons, along with my husband, will not even consider it. But in spite of the resistance from my family, I went ahead and purchased a tent.

The Joy of Reminiscing

I’m not quite sure what it is about camping that is so appealing to me. But what I do know is; whenever I sit back and reminisce about those summers camping with my family, it brings a smile to my face every time.

I spent most of our vacation days down by the lake with my family and friends. All day long we swam and dove off the wooden dock that was anchored in the middle of the beach area. Time flew by, and before we knew it late afternoon had rolled around. Certainly, by then we were all ready to head back to the campsite. So much swimming and being in the sun all day made us so tired, and famished.

I can still remember walking back, and being able to smell the charcoal heating up as we got closer to our campsite. After changing our clothes, we sat at the picnic table drawling and whining about how hungry we were. At that point the smell of the barbecue food cooking was too much for our stomachs to handle.

The kids (my brother, cousins, and me) began settling down after dinner. I can still recall the warmth I felt as we sat around the campfire talking, laughing, and toasting marshmallows together. Oh how I miss that! I actually missed it so much I called my younger daughter and asked her if she would be interested in camping out one night in my yard. After all, I did have a tent I wanted to use!

Being Creative With The People You Love

Upon my daughter accepting the invitation, we made a plan to invite and surprise my two granddaughters. So I asked my daughter in law if it would be ok? If so, to bring their sleeping bags when they came. I told the girls we were having a girl’s night, sleep over.

Unfortunately, when my grand daughters got to my house that day only one of them was happy to be sleeping in the tent. But we proceeded with our plans anyway, and assembled the tent. What a hoot that was! I don’t read directions good so if it were up to me we wouldn’t have had much more than a tepee to sleep in. So I was very thankful for my daughter’s knowledge, and previous experience putting up a tent. She was the brains of the operation, and my grand daughter and I were the muscles.

The whole night was so much fun doing things together. We stayed up late enjoying music by the bonfire. We made smores, and rubber band bracelets until it got too dark outside to see. Then we slowly made our way to the tent to sleep.

However, by 4:45 am when the birds began their morning song, the cold had gotten the best of our noses and feet. So the three of us quietly snuck upstairs, and shared the bed in the spare room. While my other grand daughter slept on the sofa in the living room, and my husband was asleep in our bedroom. When we awoke a couple hours later that morning, it was a super special moment seeing each other there. And we greeted one another with a big smile.

All week I thought about how much I enjoyed our simple night together. While thinking about it, once again I began reminiscing about the camping I did growing up. That’s when I realized the common denominator. Why these memories brought me so much joy. As I recalled them in my mind; everything I enjoyed about our simple night and past experiences camping were both because I was with people I love! Spending precious moments with them having fun was like escaping the reality of the everyday mundane.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 6:9; “Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless-like chasing the wind.”

For years I put so much emphasis on the responsibilities in my life that I was forgetting to have fun. But now realizing how quick time goes by, I make having fun with the people I love a priority. I know the scripture above is more geared towards material possessions but for me there is a different meaning: Instead of me just remembering the good times or thinking how nice it would be to do these things again, I am going to make new good times with the beautiful people in my life.

“So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)

Are you making time for those people/things that matter the most to you? Share with us, a time in your life that has a special place in the memory bank of your heart.