Favorite Place

Everyone has their “favorite place.” We all have a place that helps up “get away from it all” or we all have a place or thing that we just enjoy. Why is that your favorite spot or thing to do?  Mine, happens to be the lake. It has been as long as I can remember. I couldn’t believe that the very Church I felt the Lord leading me to be a part of has one of the most breathtaking lake views. The Lord knows just what makes my heart leap w/ excitment! One of my new favorite views is this view of the rezaivar when you drive around the back of the Church.

Maybe its the rain outside my window or the wakeboarding video I just watched, but I want to be in a boat on a lake so bad I can hardly stand it! One of my favorite things to do, hands down, is spending a day at the lake. Growing up almost every summer my family and I would go to my Uncle Randy’s mom’s house, who lived on lake Sinclair in Milledgeville, Ga , and cook-out, swim, jet ski, go out on the boat and ski, tubing/flipping out, and just spend time together. 

As far back as I can remember my “dream house” as every girl had growing up, was a house on the lake. I just love the idea of raising my kids within walking distance of water! I want my kids to grow up knowing how to ski, drive a jet ski and a boat, go tubing…etc. That is probably one of the reasons I loved the movie "Soul Surfer." Just the idea of growing up in Hawii within walking distance of the  ocean I can't fathom it, but what a gift.

My mom’s Sunday school teachers had a boat as well, and every 4^th of July we would go to Lake Allatoona and spend the day riding arounding, tubbing, sking, cooking out...you know, lake activities. My dad use to have a boat and I remember growing up spending summers on the lake with him and watching  him kneeboard…thinking my dad was probably the coolest man on the plant simply because of the  fact that he could kneeboard,ski, could drive a boat and jet ski and taught me how. I don’t know why, but just a picture on a boat on water makes me almost giddy!

Last summer my WHOLE family (all 22 of us on my dad’s side) rented a beach house and spent the week in Destin, FL. The house was located on a canael that feed into the ocean so that people could just ride their boats right out into the ocean. So in the evenings my cousins and I would spend the evenings sitting on the boat and the dock just talking, laughing and watching Jared fish…haha

Why do I and still love being on the lake so much? What is it about it that makes me grin from ear to ear and fills me w/ so much excitement I don’t know what to do with myself?  

I think it comes down to family! As I look back some of my favorite and most cherished memories involved being at the lake. For some reason it was the one time when I had my whole family, or lots of friends around. They were moments of pure joy.  Every problem got whipped away; if even for a moment.  It was, at least for me, a picture of family. Moments of doing nothing but enjoying each other, and just spending time together because we wanted to and loved each other. No one had to make us spend time together, we wanted to. I guess that is why I would love to raise my family on the lake. I guess that is why I love it so much!

Even as I write this I am reminded that the time I spend with the Lord should bring the same joy, same excitment. You don't have to pull teeth to get me to go to the Lake, nor should it be pulling teeth for me/us to spend time with the Lord.  My favorite spot should be His presence!!!

"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Ps 16:11.