summer travels...

I don't have many opportunities to take time off during the school year so I try to take advantage of a flexible schedule during the summer. I've had a few good trips already but made plans to make a trip to visit my friends in Mississippi this weekend. I drove 10 hours on Thursday from Fayetteville to Meridian and had some quality time with the Busby's. On the way I drove through Alabama... my first experience in the state... and my 26th state visited.

After a sweet breakfast at the Clarkdale Diner I drove seven hours to Johnson City, Tennessee to visit my little sister and my new brother-in-law. I could only stay for a night but it was great to see the newlyweds and their new place.

Kelsie and I visited a church in the area where the pastor spoke from Ezra 7. He spoke a lot on the value of reading the bible referencing the Back to the Bible organization's research. They found people who read the bible 0-1 times per week had no significant change in their life. Those reading 2-3 times per week had some change while people who read the bible 4 or more times per week have significant change in their life. The most memorable portion of the sermon was Dr. Land's discussion on families. He told a story from 20 years ago when he and his wife were preparing to speak at a marriage conference. He was studying a passage on how a husband should love his wife and felt God asking him, "Are you the kind of husband you would want your daughter to marry?" He realized he had always compared himself to his dad or other men in his life but when he really thought about the man he would want his daughter to marry, he had some work to do. He went and apologized to his wife and always tried to remember the message. He took it further and asked the wives, "Are you the kind of wife you would want your son to marry?" He mentioned that every day you're creating the job description that your children will look to fill. If you are disrespectful to your spouse, you're inadvertently showing your children the disrespect they should take from their spouse.

After a brunch with Kelsie this morning I drove another seven hours back to my parents' house in Maryland. My mom made my favorite dinner (we're not sure what the official name is but we call it sausage stuff :) and somehow I've managed to stay awake. I'm excited tomorrow to catch up with some high school friends and hopefully see some of the Inter-Rail crew on Tuesday before driving back to work on Wednesday. Students begin to arrive in less than a week... time to cram but hopefully I can rest up first!