Life is a Roller Coaster

      When I look back on my life, it is amazing what a roller coaster ride it has been.   There have been so many ups and downs, but realistically there have been so many more ups than downs.   I have no complaints at all and I can honestly say that if I were to die today, I would be the luckiest person in the world.

       I have had experiences in life that as a child I would have never dreamed possible.  I’ve done things and seen places that others only dream of.    How many people can say that their life has been as full as mine?

       Let’s see……  I’ve been a bookkeeper, executive secretary, purchasing agent, truck driver, business owner, school bus driver, funeral home receptionist and secretary, a 911 operator, a wife, mother, Granny  and a mother-in-law.   I’ve had more life experiences and have more useless bits of information floating around in my head than any two people should have.  And yet, I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for anything.

         I have been places and seen things that I might never have had the opportunity to enjoy if my life had  gone in a different direction.   I’ve gotten to hang out with race car drivers and they actually know me – I mean how cool is that??  Especially as much as I love racing!      I’ve been on mission trips to some of the most beautiful places God has created and received the joy that working for others brings.   I have had people come into my life that brought me such joy and impacted my life in ways they will never know.   I’ve had the joy of watching my children grow to be adults and have families of their own.   I’ve travelled more in my lifetime than my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did in all their lifetimes.

        How could I ever complain?  Don’t get me wrong, there have been some rough spots, but they just naturally come with life.    As Forrest Gump once said “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get!”.   So far, my life has been filled with my favorites -  strawberry, lemon and maple creams…… oh, and chocolate covered cherries!

The Wonders of Nature

Many years ago Bobby, Steve and I went on a mission trip to Breckenridge, Colorado with about 80 of our friends from church (Becca was at home going to GA Camp). Having never been out west and most especially to the Rockies, I had no idea of just how magnificent it was.

It was the first week of June and when we stepped off of the plane we could see snow capped mountains in the distance. The sky was the brightest blue I have ever seen (evidently there is no smog anywhere in the state!) and it smelled so clean and the mountains were absolutely breathtaking.

One of the members of the church we were working on owned a house that had 5 very large bedrooms and a great room that was bigger than the house I live in now. Our family, 3 other families, 3 single men and all the teenagers stayed in our house. The 3 house “moms” cooked for everyone and we ate breakfast and dinner together at the house each day. After dinner was a sort of free time and we could do whatever we wanted to.

The kids were particularly fond of going out on the deck and watching the night sky (this deck was the largest I have ever seen – it went all the way around the house). I didn’t realize what the attraction was until I went out on the deck with them one night (I had avoided this because the temperature dropped into the 30’s at night). I sat there for maybe a minute or two and then I knew what they were so excited about…. there were shooting stars every couple of minutes and sometimes several at a time. Someone later told me it was because of the altitude and the fact that the air is so thin and clean that you can see so many of them. It was like being in the middle of a constant meteor shower. It was so awesome that I could hardly catch my breath.

The church we were working on had a little mountain stream

behind it where the church had dug out a baptismal pool for having their baptisms. The water in this stream was about 33° (OK, maybe a little warmer, but not much) and all I can say is that you had to really love God to get baptized in that stream. I stuck my foot in and thought it would freeze solid before I could get it out!

Working on this mission trip was such a blessing – you woke up in the mornings to some of the most beautiful scenery that you can imagine and went to sleep at night under a sky with billions of stars (because of city lights and other things, we only see a tiny fraction of the stars that you could see out there). Each day I’d see the beauty of God’s creation and couldn’t help but wonder how it is that someone can say there is no God. You’ll never convince me that all this beauty “just happened”.

I am so thankful that God has given me the opportunities to see the wonders that He has created. Colorado was a beautiful state, but I was still glad to get home and see the wonders that we have here in Georgia. Every place that I have ever been privileged to visit has been wonderful in its own way, but there is no beauty like what you find at home.