Making memories

Having taken no time off this summer apart from 2 Fridays, since mid-June and the family having been gone much of that time, I wanted to build a few memories together for the whole family.

So, we intentionally built in some time this week.

On Wednesday, I left the office at 3:30 to round up the boys and head to SunSplash, a local water-slide park for $10 Wednesday nights. Although it was a little chilly, it was their first experience at a water slide park. They're ready to go back... :-)

Both especially fell in love with the wave pool.

Brendon chose, as his first ever water slide, one of the wilder solo slides. I knew he was nervous as I looked at his face for the last time before I headed into the darkness of the tube. He has told me to go down first and he would follow. It was a fast dark tube that broke open into a toilet bowl in which you spin around and around, eventually dumping you in several feet of water. When he finally emerged, he was so thrilled with his accomplishment and still scared from the ride that his whole body shook for 15 minutes afterward.

On Thursday, I left the office at noon and we spent the day together as a family. We rode our bikes together at a leisurely pace to the local library, perused the books, came home to rest and then headed out for ice cream. We finished the day with a DVD and popcorn.

On Friday, we headed to the Bay. It was a foggy day in San Francisco (go figure, it normally is) and a little windy as we found our way to the Zoo. Ian was in heaven as we explored the animal areas one by one. His favorite, of course, was the insect zoo. He described each insect to us in detail and informed us about how dangerous it was.

After wandering the zoo for several hours, we set the GPS for Fisherman's Wharf to delve into a mountain of Ghiradelli Square Ice Cream for supper. We attempted to walk off the sugar rush on the wharf and the beach before fighting rush hour traffic back home.

Saturday morning greeted us with sleeping in, pancakes and cartoons.

Time makes all the difference...

Sabbatical...one year later...

Next week, it will be one year since the Skor Family finished up our Sabbatical time away. My good friend is currently finishing up his much needed Sabbatical time as well.

Those two connected thoughts have caused me to ask myself, now one year removed, what the Holy Spirit has taught me through our Sabbatical experience, which is now viewed through the lens of a year "back in the saddle."

So here are 10 "learnings", worth something to me, but probably not much to you:

1. Health and Faithfulness are far more important to me that whether I'm perceived as successful ~ Life and circumstances may never allow us to be "healthy" in this sin-filled world, but I can still make right choices to be as healthy (spiritually, physically, emotionally) and as faithful to my God, as possible. I've watched far too many who are addicted, dysfunctional and driven by wrong things burn out and crash. As far as it depends on me, I do not want that.
2. Listening is far more important that Speaking ~ Whether it's in a conversation with people around me or in my relationship with God, this is just simply True.
3. Investing in Relationships is far more important than, well, most anything else.
4. If I cannot disconnect my esteem from "what I do," my heart is in danger ~ I am in danger when I allow myself to be influenced by those who are caught in this dysfunction as well and may need to remove myself, for a time, from that relationship.
5. If I cannot give up my need to be needed, or involved, my heart is in danger ~ I'm also convinced that this is, if not sin, bordering on it.
6. My worth, purpose and affirmation come from my relationship with my God.
7. I am called to lead, and I am gifted accordingly ~ regardless of what some who have selfish interests may have tried to say to me.
8. I choose to believe in people and speak into their lives rather than criticize them and leave them in my wake.
9. The Church is about to undergo a major reformation and paradigm shift in order to reach our current culture ~ I am called to be part of that change.
10. God has broken my heart more than ever before for people who don't know what it means to have a relationship with Jesus my friend, savior and leader.