Well, the vacation is over and all we're left with is dozens of good memories and about 50,000 pictures. But since we got home, my dad has encouraged us a couple of times to think about what we have learned about God throughout this vacation, and these are what I share with you today:
- I need to trust God with everything. We all agreed that this trip strengthened our trust in God. With all the craziness of New York and simply the other aspects of the trip, I realized that I need to trust God with everything in my life, every detail, every vacation, everything.
- I need to have more trust. Though over-all in this vacation I did trust in God, I need to have more trust. There were times that my complete trust was not in the Lord, and for that I paid the price.
- The Lord works everything out for my good. So it's one thing to read a verse (i.e. Romans 8:28) and another thing completely to see it worked out in your own life. Things that seemed simply like, "Why would you do that, God?" turned into, "Wow, You worked that out better than I could have ever imagined, and forgive me for not seeing that You really do have my best interests at heart." Those moments are convicting, but they really re-ground you.
- "The human heart is a factory of idols." John Calvin really expressed how I feel much more eloquently than I could. It's true that this vacation showed me another aspect of my life where sin was rooting, and that was the area of idolizing things. Even making priority decisions that seemed small, but I knew were sin, built idols in my heart. Sadly, I also found myself so excited about certain parts of this vacation that they became more important than making time with the Lord. But when I realized what I was doing, I repented and it caused me to quickly readjust my priorities.
- God's creation truly is spectacular! I saw so many incredible sights and wonders on this trip. Even man-made things that God put in men's hearts to build were amazing! New York, the Caribbean and Florida all held beautiful things - so many things from ships to islands to oceans to roller coasters to intricate statues of butter! That God would either directly create them or give a man the creativity, ability and idea, He is is so creative! I was so blessed by this vacation!
Well, this was our trip, and I hoped you enjoyed my account of it. So until the next dream vacation ...