Let em' Fly! - that's how God made 'em!

Our oldest daughter leaves for college in a few months... we hoped she would attend Harding U (like her daddy), which is 2 hours from our house... but God opened other doors so wide and so obviously that even I couldn't miss them!

She was offered a very generous scholarship to play basketball for York College, which is 9 hours away! This is NOT what I had in my master plan... but we have a great peace about it because she is so excited (as are we) about this opportunity.

Reading Terry Rush's blog this morning gave me an even greater peace about the direction God is leading her... www.terryrush.blogspot.com

You see, without even knowing it, God has used my wife and I to (almost inadvertantly) instill some sense of adventure in her. We have been blessed with the opportunity to travel to several 'mission points' (both domestic and foreign) over the course of my daughter's life... and this summer our family will travel to Panama for another mission effort. (I say none of this to brag... just to make a point)

So, the light bulb is just starting to illuminate above my head! We always wondered why, when my daughter would go to summer camp, she preferred attending a session where she knew nobody... or why, when she had the opportunity to travel to the gulf coast and help those affected by Rita and Katrina, she jumped at the chance.... or why now, when making the biggest such decision of her young life, she is going to a part of the world where she has never been to attend college...

Yet I had never really made the connection between who she is and how she became who she is... until I read Terry's blog today.

...indeed God works His will in His way...

Since my daughter made the decision to attend York, many of our friends have expressed sentiments like "whew, that's a long way away", or "man, how will you guys survive"... one even said "I would never let my child go that far away to college... I bet she'll be home in a year!"

My wife and I were really upset by that last one... and I could not quite put my finger on why I was offended at that mindset...til I read Terry's blog...

and... voila!!! it's because "...kids were created for adventure..."

We certainly have made plenty of mistakes where rearing our children is concerned. But thank God for leading us to be open to adventure (at least a little bit)... because that has helped our daughter (at least to a degree) to crave adventure and opportunity.

Blessings!