Windy Waves of Wonderful

First and foremost...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABE!!!

Abe is honestly the kindest man I know.  He wants everyone to be happy.  He tries so hard to be the best he can be.  He is strong!  He is wise!  He is a hard worker!  He loves people and places his relationships with them above being right.  He wants everyone around him to believe in themselves.  My dear Abe even supports my crazy ideas... and he doesn't even think they're crazy!  I love my dear husband and the miracle of his beautiful life.  He is truly wonderful.

It was my birthday last Friday.  Because it rained too much, we decided to go to the beach on Saturday instead.  Before we could leave on Saturday, we wanted to organize the rest of our moving mess.  All morning it was scorching hot.  The sun blazed down on us with extreme humidity as we finished up our work.

On the way out the door to finally go to the beach in the early afternoon, a downpour started with flashes of lightning.  The kids were anxious to still spend the day at the beach, so we decided to go anyway and see what weather we would encounter.

As we drove, the rain on the windows made it seem like a truly pointless beach trip.

It was about an hour drive away.  I checked the weather at the beach, and it reported clear at that moment.  As we drove into the beach city, dark clouds began to roll in.  I felt like it wouldn't be fair for me to ask God to not let it rain for our beach day because we really should have left earlier in the day.  Instead, I asked God to make our experience a wonderful, safe, and memorable one even though the weather wasn't perfect.

As we pulled into the parking lot, several families eyed the dark clouds as they left the beach.  I quickly informed the children I was sure we would NOT be swimming.  

The wind blew on us hard as we all ran down the sandy hill to only look at the water.  

Seeing no lightning, we eventually inched our way into the water.  We quickly realized that despite the cold breeze, the water was VERY warm!   

We ALL threw ourselves into the wild waves accompanied by dark clouds and heavy winds.  

Not a single drop of rain fell on us the entire time!  We played for hours and had a spectacular time!

The following day, my kids asked me if we could go back to the beach on a cloudy, windy day because that was a "WAY BETTER EXPERIENCE!"  They began to list all the reasons that cloudy, windy days were better beach days.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.   I was really just hoping for it to be a fun day, but God turned a dark, cloudy beach day into the most wonderful, safe, and memorable experience they'd ever had at the beach!    ... just as I had requested.

I have no question God cares about the details of our lives.  

In our real lives, God usually doesn't take away the dark and cloudy experiences... HE turns those dark, cloudy experiences into something WONDERFUL!  ...and often, when necessary for our greatest, overall happiness,  HE surprises us and takes away "the rain and the lightning" just when we think we can't go on.