Leeks and Garlics

Camping was a very important event in this family as our children were growing up. We camped at the same primitive campground for probably 6 years. There was no electricity, no shower houses and just the old fashioned outhouses that smelled really really bad! But there was a river that went right behind the campground and if we booked our sites early enough we could get a tent site with the river right behind our tent. The boys LOVED the place. They played in the water and we  would all go tubing down the river. I guess I was younger and braver or had more energy for such things because I really did love it too. Now I would be quite content to sit on the bank and watch! The skunks and coons would visit our trash at night and one of our tents still has a hole where Justin claubered a coon through the netting. It was an immense amount of work getting all our gear together and food packed into ice chests and expect it to stay good for 3 days. And it seemed like many times when we went camping it would rain at least a part of our stay, so we made tarps a part of our camping gear too. And I remember the misery of a full fledged thunderstorm with heavy rain, laying in the tent during the night and being very aware that the walk to the outhouse was very far away and that it really needed to stop raining soon! The comforts of my conveniences at home looked very inviting and impossible to get to.

The last time we went was in 2012. We had done a little camping during Jonathan's illness in 2013  but it was close home and with a camper. Last year I took my family to a beautiful cabin in the mountains of NC and it was so refreshing and quiet and peaceful. This year we went camping, in tents, and no electricity. Not to our same river campground....it was a little more modern, at least there were shower houses but it was in tents. A lot of memories flooded over me! It was so different this time! The boys turned into men. This time they set up the tents, this time they lit the campfire, this time they cleaned up camp before retiring for the night. The last time in 2012 they helped with all of that but with no Daddy to give the orders and decide the next step they did it this time.

It seemed like we picked the hottest weekend of the summer. We were pontooning on the lake on Sat and it was lovely in spite of the little rain shower but that evening when we got back to camp it was soo very warm! Justin was cooking burgers over the fire and sweat was pouring from him. In fact we could sweat just sitting and doing nothing! We never sat around the fire and made smores, it was to hot! I laid in my tent at night and tried to cool off and there was no moving air. Just the night noises and the stars and me and my little family camped around me and I thought about the comforts of home, my bed and the cool air in my bedroom with a bathroom a couple steps away. At one point David removed the top cover from the tent in hopes of getting a bit more cool air from somewhere. It didn't help much.

And then I thought about the Children of Israel wandering around in the dessert for 40 years in the heat and a very boring diet and God got very harsh with them for complaining! I decided then and there that I would not have been any better! Oh I know, they were used to living in tents or similar structures and they were not pampered with all the convenieces that we take for granted BUT ....they still thought back to the "leeks and Garlics" that they were missing. They were missing good food. The manna was a miracle sent to them every day but when we went camping I took a much bigger variety of food for 3 days then just bread! I'm sure I would have gotten tired of manna too. I can't really compare my life to theres because I don't really know what it was like. However it got me thinking. God was looking out for them and getting them out of slavery. Their complaing and unbelief made his delivery take so much longer then it should have. I don't think God was punishing them for remembering the good things they had and now lost but He was upset with their complaining spirit, their unthankfulness.

 And then I wonder about my life and if I hinder God's blessing on me when I fret about the things that I don't like. When I see others enjoying the good  things I hoped to enjoy and I forget to thank God for the way that He does care for me in the circumstances that I face, does He get frustrated with me too? Is complaining less sinful then it was back then. Does the absence of thankfulness remove His blessing from my life? Does a negative" I wish life would be different" attitude grieve my God ? Maybe I'm not saying anything...at least I'm not complaining. Is that ok? He still knows if I'm not thankful for the good things He does send my way.
                    That was the lesson I learned while camping.

And then we went camping the second time. With folks we didn't know very well. We had one common bond. Missing Daddies. My brother-in-law Jason arranged this camping trip. He has a sister who's husband died from a heart attack. She has a family close in age to my family. We spent the weekend together talking laughing and sitting around the fire and eating good food. It was not manna either! We ate burgers and pork loins and deer meat that melted in your mouth. We had delicious melons and salads and chip dips and desserts! It was lots of fun. And it was comfortable! We widows tend to feel very uncomfortable in crowds but this was different. Mutual feelings, nothing awkward! It was a great weekend! And we came away saying "Lets do it again". Friends, no longer strangers. A blessing!

It is very true that it is easy to look back and long for the good things we used to enjoy and I don't think that is wrong but I really want to have a thankful heart. God has been so faithful and I know He will continue.