It's amazing where God can find us!

OK, so usually this blog is mainly about the kids. But I felt I wanted to share some about Danny's and my camping trip this past Friday night. So, I'll apologize now for the length of the blog, because there will be a lot to talk about. So, here it goes....

We headed out Friday afternoon heading to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to go tent camping - the first time for me. I was very excited!! Our plan was to stay at Elkmont because we could stay right on the river. There website said they were open year round so that's where we were going to go. Once we got there, we found out they are not open all year. So, plan B - go to Cade's Cove campsite. We get there and they are open - somewhat. The ranger station isn't open but you can pay in an envelope. So, we grab a map and try to figure out which campsite is on the creek because A was open, but B was closed. Once Danny talked about staying on the river - I had decided that's what we were going to do no matter what! Here we are - both looking at the map and trying to figure out where we are and where we need to go. Now, I feel both Danny and I are smart people - especially Danny. But after driving in circles or turning around in the parking lot no less than 5 times we finally figured out that the creek campsite was closed. We decided to try to call a place since we were wasting precious daylight. Now, we were in the mountains so there was no cell phone coverage. We scrounged around and found $.50 to use the pay phone (side note: I thought we would only need $.35). Called Lazy Daze and yes, they were open and yes they had river front campsites available for the night. Yes!!

I really thank God for allowing us to run into those "issues." We found the perfect place - a place I needed to be. We had perfect weather - in the 60s. It was a nice sunny afternoon. We got everything set up and had a little time. We were waiting for the firewood to burn so we could have some coals for Danny to cook on. Danny went down to fish and I decided to walk along the river and try to work on my photography skills. What a walk God led me on. First I just stopped and stood there and listened to......quiet.....all I could hear was the river. It was completely awesome!! I walked on down the river and there was a big rock sticking up out of the water.

I stopped to take a picture and thought - that's how I feel a lot of the time - like I'm treading water, not going anywhere, and barely keeping my head above the water. I was reminded Friday morning at MOPS that a lot of that comes from me being unorganized. I don't have a schedule with the kids other than meal times and nap times. I don't plan other things or cleaning or down time. Toddlers and preschoolers like schedules and boundaries. I had forgotten that. But, back to my walk....

I walked a little farther there was a root from a big tree coming out of and running across the top of the ground. It looked like a snake to me which reminded me of Satan and how he tries to worm his way into our lives...which is part of my problem right now. I feel I have allowed Satan to get into my head and I don't focus enough on what Christ did for me....for all of us......

died on the cross(which I saw in two trees on the ground) to save me (us) from our sins

The trees were directly across the river from our campsite. So, I was often reminded of it! I loved that I could sit at our campsite and look across the river and see it! I also saw on my walk three quartz rocks together on a another rock......

which reminded me once again of Jesus on the cross, His sacrifice for me, and the defeating of the "snake" - Satan!

As I turned around and headed back up the river I saw the path I had just come down. What struck me was most of it was in the shadows - not very dark shadows but something just a little different -but at the very end was a tree with the bright sunlight shining on it. I felt like it was calling me back - just as I felt God was doing to me on this trip. Not that I had gotten so far away from Him that I was doing bad things or didn't believe in Him. I just haven't focused enough on Him and Him guiding me in ALL of my life - including what to do with my kids everyday. It seems so small but when you are as tightly wound as I am - you need all the help you can get with guidance!! So, I came home very renewed from this trip. When we left to go camping I was totally not looking for that but very thankful for it!