Georgia On My Mind

Hey! I've just gotten back from my week's trip to Georgia with my mom. It was a fantastic trip and a really good time to be with family. We stayed with my mom's parents (thus, my grandparents) and so had a lot of time to spend with them. My uncle lives nearby and so we saw him on most days as well. It was a good time to really get to know my grandparents even more, since our lifestyle has made family-times scarcer than we might like. It's interesting, too, to relate to them as a young , not just a little grandkid running around the house. The trip was really a blessed time for me, in which I felt God taught me a lot by just having me sit back some. Life in the small town of Georgia where my grandparents live is very slow--the big event of the day is usually the Braves game on Turner South that evening. Needless to say, the world of missions and travel is a very different one; my life has been much broader and busier. I've come to see, though, that there is nothing necessarily "better" about my life than one lived in the same small town for years and years. I saw a different kind of lifestyle, a slower and simpler lifestyle. Yet they are not "slow" or "simple" people that live these lives; many are good, strong, solid people who quietly live their beliefs from day to day. I have come to realize that the life my uncle lives, taking care of my grandparents' needs day after day, have led to many many sacrifices that he has made willingly and lovingly for years. I see in him a greater example of the humility and self-sacrifice of Christ than I have in many missionaries who have left country and home to follow God's call. I do not at all belittle the sacrifices of missionaries--my family and I have made many of our own--but I saw in my uncle, though many might say he's never amounted to "much," a greatness I wish I might someday posess.

So yes, our time in Georgia was a blessed time, and one of much learning and observing in my own life. I am glad to be back in Texas, though, and to begin to settle out the last couple of weeks before school starts.

I have more I would like to say about a book I've just read for the first time that is one of the most beautiful and moving books I've ever read. But perhaps I'll save that for another post....