1983-1993

Someone recently asked me what my favorite year was and why. I thought about it and I was shocked to realize that it was between the years of 1983 and 1993. Those years and those experiences were amazing!!

I was asked that question on a trip with a group of friends to Writesville Beach. We never actually made it to the beach because it rained all day. But I realized somethings about myself this weekend.

I grew up unlike any other person I've ever met. I love how I was raised and how we grew up and the life lessons that we were taught!

I didn't grow up doing the normal things that people did. I didn't go to beaches during the summer....I didn't even really know how to pack for a day at the beach. I went to mission's conferences and Bible Summer Camps and Camp Meetings. I didn't spend the long "dog" days of summer in giggles and gossip by the pool with classmates. I spent summers fighting my brother for space on the back seat of our maroon station wagon. Reading books about Hellen Keller, Bruce Olsen, and Nancy Drew while going from Cherokee, NC, to San Antonio, to Oklahoma, and back again.

I turned 13, 14, and 15 in three different states and was even thrown a surprise birthday party by a church full of total strangers. I still have one of the gifts that they gave me! I will always remember standing on the spot where Davey Crockett died and seeing my father cry as he read the monuments in Washington, DC. The San Antonio Zoo was amazing and Oklahoma....well...hot and dry is what I remember most...oh and the rose rocks were awesome! I remember my thrill of getting to sleep in a spare bedroom that had pink roses and boarders of satin on a down comforter. It was so elegant I pretended to be cold just so that I could use it. Or the time we stayed in an old funeral home in Waycross Georgia and I was so terrified that I had to pretend I was Nancy Drew in order to fall asleep. I could literally go on and on with the interesting things we saw and did in our years.

I've struggled the past few weeks with the fact that I'm so stinking serious. I try to loosen up and be silly and fun like everyone around me...but it's a tough sell. It's just not natural for me. Don't get me wrong I LOVE to laugh and goof off just like everyone....but I seem to do it differently. I've been told a few different times that I am older than my age. I didn't take it as a compliment. Boring was how I'd translate that statement. But then when I think about my life growing up.....all I can do is smile and praise God for those experiences.

I know how to give my testimony in written or spoken form. This I am told is difficult for some. I've learned diplomacy and how to swallow something when you think it is absolutely disgusting.....for the sake of the one giving it. I've learned that it is very enjoyable to talk to those decades past you in years and that often asking an older person one question about themselves will not only provide hours of fascinating stories, it will make them smile for a lot longer than that. I've learned that the truth of the Gospel is worth fighting for. And that shaking the dust off your feet, so to speak.....can be a very scary experience. I've learned that God provides alternators from preachers you don't know in Motels 6's in Kentucky. And that Cherokee, North Carolina at night, can be scary to a little girl with a vivid imagination,


But mostly I've learned that God will supply ALL that we need, He still does perform wondrous miracles! And when we are doing HIS WORK He will do the rest. And lastly that the body of Christ is amazing in reaching out and taking in a stranger and making them a sister even if they're only going to see you one time this side of heaven!

So many awesome lessons! I will never forget it. Those years traveling in the back of that Chevy Station wagon was hands on experience in following Christ. So yes, I am more serious than most. More pensive that some would prefer but I hope and pray that the lessons that I've learned and the training I've been given is being used and will be used as an effective tool in the Master's plan.

I Thessalonians 2:12 says..."that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory." That is my prayer.....I trust that He has prepared me as He sees fit for the work that He will entrust to me. Oh that I would be worthy of that calling and that I would embrace the gifts and talents that He's given to me...instead of wishing I could trade them for the gifts of those around me.

Kind of gives a new light to Psalms 139:14...."I am fearfully and wonderfully made!"

Run with patience!

Jaime