The theme of my time away was rest. I needed to get out of the routine and be refreshed so that was my goal. I spent some restful time on the beach in Jamaica with my family. While I hoped this would be a highly intentional family-focused time together, my teenager and tween had other ideas when it came down to it. This time is difficult for parents and kids are pulling away and becoming increasingly independent. That is a good thing and when I step back and assess, it is healthy and is truly natural. However, it can be a struggle as we figure out how to navigate this pulling away and still have intentional relationship. For me, this has absolutely been the case. I love that my boys are independent and confident but it’s tough when they choose friends over my wife and I. Again, completely natural and a good thing, but is still tough in the execution. After getting home from vacation, I served with Love & Care Ministries. What a time of blessing this turned out to be. I attempted to plan out my service time (what’s so wrong with being a planner?!) but was unsuccessful. Thus, I had to simply show up and get put to work. This worked out great as I knew I was exactly where God wanted me to serve. I spent my week serving in the soup kitchen. Some of the time was in the actual lunch room serving meals, talking and interacting with homeless and impoverished people of our Abilene community. Other times I participated in taking food to the streets, the way the Love & Care ministry began many years ago. It’s humbling and incredible to be reminded of just how blessed I am. There are so many things as simple as air conditioning, clothing, the abundance of food and many more that I easily take for granted. I took the opportunity to take each of my boys with me to serve. This also was incredible and very rewarding. Each of my family members serve in our own ways but to be able to serve together was a fun experience. It bonded us in new ways and provided a new commonality for us to experience together. Another aspect of service while I was away from work was serving my family. With my boys, I looked for ways to tell them yes almost every time they asked for something (wisdom and discernment first!) and I looked for ways we could build relationship by doing things together. With my wife, I tried to lighten her load. Being a stay-at-home mom and homemaker, she never gets a true vacation. She always has laundry to do, people to be fed, etc. So while I was off of work, my goal was for her to never cook a meal (me and the boys helped on this, plus eating out was our friend) and I did as much laundry as I could. She was a little sneaky on this front though as she tends to just jump up and get things done when necessary not wait for someone else to get it done. All in all, I had a fantastic time away on my vacation as well as helper of people leave. In addition to spending a very large amount of time with my family, serving and enjoying vacation, I was able to watch a ton of soccer which was a real treat for me. Thanks for everyone at Parkway allowing me to be off. And I’m grateful for DIG and the opportunity to enjoy helpers of people leave. I’m grateful for our set of companies and all of the incredible benefits.
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