Looking Back

Mother's Day. My mom and dad came over on Saturday, since Sundays are usually busy. My mom has undertaken a massive cleaning at their house, so she brought with her a bag full of things she had kept from when I was in elementary school. So I spent the afternoon of Mother's Day sitting on the couch, looking at my past.

Here are a few of the things that I lingered over:

• My kindergarten graduation cap and diploma. Now my baby is finishing kindergarten in a few weeks! In the same package was an award for Bible memory, attentiveness, and the non-wiggler award. My kids inherited the Bible memory. They can be attentive at times, but they definitely did not inherit the non-wiggler trait!
• My 3rd and 4th grade journals. It was really interesting to read my outlook on life back in those days. It actually helped me see the world from my children's perspective. It's a lot nicer than the world I see as an adult!
• A poem I wrote for my mom in 4th grade and entered in a Mother's Day contest. It was actually published in the Saginaw News, our local newspaper! Even at the age of 10 I loved to write.
• The church bulletin from our children's cantata, "Angels Aware," when I sang my first solo in church. I still remember all the words. I also remember having to stand on my tip-toes through the entire song because the microphone was on a stand and it was too high!

The thing about all these memories (yes, my husband had to sing the song to me from the other end of the couch) is looking back and seeing how far God has brought me. When I was a kid, I wanted to live on a horse ranch somewhere out West. Anywhere with snowcapped mountains. Well, I didn't get the mountains or the horses, but I did get the Ranch!

The funny thing is, we used to listen to Family Life Radio when I was growing up, and I would hear these segments about a place called Youth Haven Ranch. Who could have imagined that one day I would marry into the Founders' family and God would call us to serve full-time at Youth Haven? Well, God, of course!

Now, I listen to my kids and they are full of ambition. Stefan wants to be an airline pilot and an astronaut. Lukas wants to be a zookeeper. (He absolutely loves animals.) Only recently Lukas informed me that God had told him he was supposed to join the military to protect our country. I told them both it doesn't matter what job they have as long as they do what God wants them to do.

I guess my point is, He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have it any other way.