The second little thing that struck me from our vacation came from Philippians 2…
2 :: Philippians 2 Vacation Motto ::
As I shared before, I struggled with the feeling that taking a luxurious vacation to Hawaii seemed indulgent, selfish. The sermon Joel preached right before we left was from Philippians 2–on humility. And he shared that the most miserable, joy-less way to live is to be selfish. Selfishness is the surest route to misery. Well, I sure did not want to be miserable on vacation! So if vacation is selfish and selfish is joyless, we needed to figure something else out! So, we decided that in order to have joy on our vacation, it was our job to “look out for the interests of others” (Phil 2:4). In other words, I’d look out for Jeff’s best, he’d look out for me, we’d both look out for Dutch, Dutch would look out for Heidi, and Heidi would just be her silly little self because that’s about all she can be right now. If we all tried to give each other the very best, most fun and wonderful time ever, we could count on the fact that our joy would be full. That would be the blessing of our vacation. Not selfishness, but other-ness.
And it was. Jeff amazed me by selflessly playing in the shallow water with our kids for hours and hours while I relaxed. He built a dozen sandcastles, “swam” in 6-inch deep water pretending to be a humpback whale, and stayed in the dark hotel room during naptime so I could lounge alone by the beach with my book. He got up every morning and took Dutch for a walk to get me coffee. I soaked and slow-cooked beans and mixed up simple yummy meals for the fam, brought picnics on the beach, and … actually I can’t think of anything else I did for anybody. I think I got spoiled on this trip. 🙂 The kids were, naturally, plenty selfish, but Dutch did a great job helping sister, he even carried her little pink Dora suitcase for her, and held her hand in the car to keep her happy. Sure, we had our share of selfish moments, but I think Philippians 2 will be my new vacation motto–if we all try to give each other the best, most wonderful time ever, then we all win.
And you know what happened? Somehow, while we were all trying to bless each other, our gracious heavenly Father schemed up an amazing Grand Finale to our trip. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it because it so showed God’s tender love for us. While we were there I received a text message from a gal in my Bible study group, a family new to our church, who just happened to be visiting Maui at the same time, staying just 1/3 of a mile up the road from us. They invited us to visit their resort which was Hawaiian-heaven. No. Seriously. This place was amazing. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. I thought Dutch’s eyes were going to pop out of his head as he swam around the tropical-paradise pool and swam under the huge waterfall into the underwater cave. Jeff, who had wanted to body-surf and snorkel the whole time but had instead spent his vacation building sand-castles, got to swim on their amazing beach, body surf, and use their snorkel gear while they played with our kids on the beach. It was like God had planned the whole week to give us this extra-special kiss from Him, and He allowed us to get to know this wonderful family from church. We drove away that evening from their hotel, pulled over the car, and all thanked God for orchestrating that amazing circumstance. The best part about it was it was unmistakably a God-thing. The best part of blessing is the God behind it all.
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So now we are home. There is no place like it. When we walked in the door our house was 49 degrees, and today it is pouring rain. But oh do I love home! And how much do I long to be a more thankful, joyful, contented woman than before. God has brought us so far, and yet we have so far to go, don’t we? I rejoice that He is so patient with us and gracious toward us. This hymn keeps echoing in my heart:
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er!
Jesus Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!
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