Unmemorable Memories

We returned from our short vacation to San Francisco, and L.A. last Tuesday. In the back of my mind I knew I needed this vacation. But it never occured to me how MUCH I needed this vacation. It wasn’t until Chris, Caitlin and I were enjoying being together as a family, catching up with old friends, and seldom seen relatives, that I realized how relaxed and carefree I was. As I compared my state of mind then, with my state of mind before the vacation (and now that the vacation is over) I realized how stressful my life has been. Stress is like rust. It slowly builds up, without us realizing it is there. It starts in the smallest corners and crevices, unnoticed. Then all of a sudden something breaks and we wonder where all the rust came from.

Vacations are like checkpoints. They allow us to look back at the path we have taken through the maze of life in order to give us a chance to make course corrections, so that ultimately we arrive at our destination.

This vacation has made me realize that life is too short to be wasted working away trying to provide for the current and future needs of my family. Sometimes we get too busy doing just that, that we forget to enjoy the precious God given gift which is our families. It is good to provide for the current and future needs, but that should not be done at the expense of enjoying that which you are providing for.