TRADITIONS

The fabulous family and I just returned from a week at the Texas beach.  Our beach trips began a LONG time ago.  We journeyed to the Florida beach and spent a week with our dearest friends The Thompson's for over thirty years.  I have an entire books of stories to tell from those years including the all night evacuation trying to get away from an approaching hurricane.  

Over the years many things about our beach trips changed--the house, the beach, who could come, what we ate...  One thing remained constant--our mutual affection for one another and it being the best week of the year.  We were ---a study of an aging family's dynamics and change was inevitable.  When we are all together there is always some memory of beach trips from the past that comes to the surface.  It was a magical time.

Life is filled with changes---the kids all grew up--they have families of their own and the beach trips ended as the shape of the family became different.  Three years ago #1 Daughter decided to reinstate the beach trip for our clan.  She arranged the dates, made the contacts, and pulled together our first trip to the TX beach.  This year was our third trip as a family to the Texas beach and #1 Daughter has become our official trip planner.  

We do a lot of the same things we have done for the past 40 years.  There is something to be said for traditions.

And new activities are added--sometimes for only a short season.

Many things change over the years, but the tradition of the beach trip lives on.  Camille took the initiative to make sure we continued to gather together and enjoy this time as a family.  It is my favorite week of the year.

The Word speaks of raising a child in the way he should go and they will not depart from it.  I am pretty certain it was not referring to an annual beach trip, but this trip is very indicative of exactly what it speaks.  As we grow our families--the things we do together become an important part of who we are.  We begin laying the foundation of what is important at a very early age and with repetition comes the desire to stay the course.  I never stopped to consider all those years ago that I was planting a seed of the importance of family time.  And yet all these years later, the seed not only took hold but has sprouted into a beautiful family tree.  Sometimes we just have to be obedient and trust--He way is always the best way.

Another year of beautiful family memories made on yet another sandy beach.

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6