Summer

God has blessed me so much. I drove home Saturday and was greeted by a dinner with my parents, grandmother, Amy, Sarah, Jason, and my nephew Aidan! It is so good to spend time with family, especially when you are a Willis because then you have an excellent family =). In all seriousness, I could not be more blessed with the parents and siblings that God gave me. This becomes more and more evident to me today as I grow older and realize all that they mean to me.

After an extremely busy semester filled with papers, readings, exams, social club events, ministries, friends, work, and everything else I pour my time into it is great to have a week to do absolutely nothing besides enjoy the people that I am with. Home is quite different than I remember it growing up. I wake up and Dad is already solving transportation issues, Mom is making her co-worker's jobs easier, Amy is teaching in Dallas, Sarah is being a mother, and Aaron is working at Loews in Searcy. So I am home alone and get do things that I love - watch Seinfeld, watch movies, read To Kill a Mockingbird, or play Xbox. It is so nice to just relax.

I look forward to the afternoon when my parents get home and I get to spend time with them. On Monday I got to spend the night with my Dad. We went and visited a couple that has been visiting our home church and our goal was to just make them feel welcome - it was great getting to know them as well! After that we went and visited a man that we look up to in the Hospital who is not doing very well and wasn't very coherent. I am thankful that I got to see him; it was a reminder that I am entitled to absolutely nothing in life, even health. Experiencing things like this encourage me to dream big and pursue those dreams because I can't waste what I have been given and among the things that I have been given is great health. There will be a day when I am completely dependent on the people around much much like I was when I came into this world. So why not bless people with the health and energy that I have been given today?

What was great about this night was the opportunity to drive around Houston with my Dad and be in conversation with him. He is so wise. Whenever we get to spend time together our conversations are never simply surface level - we always end up talking about the deeper meanings of life and our relationship with the creator. I experience God's love when I spend time with my parents; they have the purest, most genuine, and loving relationship that I have ever seen. I know that anyone who gets to spend time with my parents walks away blessed because of their profound and deep relationship with God. I can't wait to find someone to love as deeply as my parents love each other.

I think the best part of the night was coming home and my Dad showing me a thread on TexAgs.com that was hilarious. One poster had us laughing to the point of tears about something highly inappropriate but hysterical - just face it we've all been there and these moments are generally the most fun and memorable.

I am enjoying this week at home, but I can't wait to go to Memphis on Saturday and start working at Sycamore View! I know God has big things planned this summer with the teenagers there and I can't wait to be apart of it. Please pray for me to pursue God and God alone this summer. If God is the center of everything we do, especially our relationships, nothing in this world should be able to get us down for long because he is Joy!