Spring Break

The hubby, kids and I will be traveling to Florida next week for Spring Break.

Think – a geriatric version of Where The Boys Are.

I have previously shared with you my trite observations of this lovely southern state when I visited my folks last September – Why I Don’t Live In Florida. But with our summer days largely spoken for with mission trips, cross-country camp and dance training, we decided to head south for Spring Break. Frankly, I’m rather honored that my college kids have agreed to spend their spring break with their parents. We’re just so cool… 

We’re flying out of LaGuardia, and I have been praying nonstop that there would be no geese around when we take off. I honestly have imagined our vacation spent on the wing of a plane floating in the Hudson River. I pray that our pilot is as skillful as Capt. Sully Sullenberger.

Once in sunny (and by sunny, I mean excruciatingly hot and humid) Florida, we’ll be spending a few days with my folks and a few days at the beach. Please keep my dad and stepmom in prayer as he has been in and out of the hospital with prostate cancer procedures that have weakened him and stressed her.

And feel free to keep my hair in prayer. As some of you know, I have naturally curly (and by curly, I mean huge, intermittently frizzy) hair that expands with the humidity. I am powerless to fight it. And of  course, I hate the way I look when it’s curly. Ladies, why is that???? We straighten our curls, and curl our straights.

But the humidity foils all our efforts. Ahhh – the great mystery – the very same humidity that swells my hair makes another’s straight hair flat. Just like the very same boiling water will make an egg hard, but a carrot soft. So we must conclude – it’s not the humidity nor the boiling water that is the problem, it is how we react to it! Likewise, a difficult circumstance will reduce one to tears, yet cause another to fortify her reserves. And so we must conclude – it’s not the circumstance that is the problem, it is how we react to it. We can’t always control the circumstance, but we can control how we react to things. To carry this a little further – When in hot water, we should be more like a coffee bean than the egg or the carrot because the egg and carrot react to the hot water, but the coffee actually changes the hot water. In it’s brokenness, it infuses the water with its fragrance and substance and positively affects the situation. It creates an improved environment. I’ll need to remember that this week 🙂

And so, my friends, as we speed along towards spring, may you have a blessed week, and I’ll catch up with you on the other side!

Susan
ps – Speaking of mysteries and seasons, here’s a favorite – Daniel 2:19-23
During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said:

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.
He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.
I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.”