We spent the day at the beach building multi-level sand castles from empty cookie-dough tubs and plastic take home cups from our favorite small town bar-b-que joint.  The sun was hot but the breeze kept the air comfortable.  I laid on my chaise for a few moments watching the kids play near the edge of the Atlantic Ocean before they began to beg me to join them.  They’re allowed to go deeper into the water if I am there to hold their hands.

We stood side by side, our fingers intertwined, waiting on each roll of the tide to pass us by and we would lift our feet off the floor of the ocean so that the swell of the water would raise us up.  I remember looking at my children laughing in the sunshine, sputtering mouthfuls of salt water with each passing wave and in that exact moment, couldn’t find fault with a single thing in my life.

There is no perfection and yet there is abundance.  Do we go without?  Yes.  Do we have our struggles?  Most certainly.  But we are blessed beyond compare.  So many families face hard times and turmoil these days.  Brokenness and conflict fill their days and terrorize their nights.  I am so thankful to God for the things that I have – my faith, my children, my family and friends, my church home, my career.  These are the important things.

I saw the waves that day as reminders of hurts and troubles from my own past that tried to drown me.  And with each sputtering mouthfull, I stood back up to face another wave.  I have hopes and dreams just like everyone does.  My wish list of “maybe one day’s” is as long as the next persons.  But standing there in the water with my children, watching those waves pass us by, I had it all in the palm of my hands.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Hopes Dreams And Unicorns, Parenting, The Boy, The Girl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.