The Pleasure of Family

My family spent this past week at Surfside Beach.  It's a tradition with our family and some extended family as well. We stay in the same beach house each year, the same week in June.  I began going with my husband's family to the beach before we were married.  He (Rick) would have to stay in the apartment below because I would get the extra bedroom upstairs. And even 30 years later, married and with children, we still continue this family vacation tradition. 

We have a wonderful time.  We play games, watch the College World Series, sun, swim, walk, talk, shop, and just enjoy being together.  This year we celebrated my mother-in-law's 80th birthday.  When I first started going with them to the beach she was turning 50.  Now Rick is 51 and I'll turn 50 in a couple of years. Ooo...that's unreal!

The week that we spend at the beach each year is Father's Day week.  We would have to celebrate with my dad before we left for the beach each year.  My mother's birthday is also that week and we would celebrate that early as well. This year my dad will have been gone 6 years in July and my mother turned 82 while we were away.  It's always a little bit sad when Father's Day arrives and my daddy isn't here anymore to celebrate with.  To add more sadness to it, my mother is declining with dementia and really hasn't had the concept of a calendar since my dad died.  We went by to see her today and to celebrate.  She didn't even know she had had a birthday, but she played it up well.  Her repetitive comment these days is, "I've really been blessed."  If she said it once today, she said it 10 times.  And you know, she's right! We have all been blessed!


One of my greatest pleasures is spending time with my family- my husband, my son, my daughter, my mom, my sister, my in-laws, and my extended in-laws.  Because my mom and dad are not "with me" like they once were, my in-laws are now parents to me.  I have terrific in-laws and could not have asked for better ones.  They are godly people who love me just like I was their own. 


God has given me the pleasure of having a loving family.  One that loves each other, but also one that loves God first.  He is the Pleasure that we all enjoy.  But even if we didn't have each other, we always have the pleasure of loving Jesus. An old hymn chorus says it all.  "Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus because He first loved me." (words by Frederick Whitfield)

Now it's back to the daily routine around here, if you can call the summer schedule a normal routine.  I love going to the beach with family, but I love being at home with them even more!