Reach for the Skies!

When we were kids, my brother and I used to play all kinds of games together...

"Reach for the skies!
Wait... Let me get my gun ready...
Okay, REACH FOR THE SKIES!"

Cowboys and Indians... 

Karate Kid... 

Batman and Robin... 

G.I. Joe..

Every day was an adventure, it seemed, and of course, we always had to have the right costumes/accessories, no matter what the game was!

By the time my sister came along, we were a little older, and I loved her (still do!), but I didn't always know how to relate to her (still don't!). I think we were really starting to get along best about the time I went away for college, and that makes me sad. Every time I came home, she had grown so much, and I hate that I missed so much!

I have lots of fun and funny memories, though, about all of us! From playing baseball in the yard with my brother and the neighbor kids or clipping on plastic earrings to play "Pretty Pretty Princess" with my sister (I hope no pictures of that ever surface!), we played together and we laughed together, and it was truly great at times! But eventually we did what all kids do, and we grew up...

     We got other friends...
          We went our separate ways...
               Life kinda just... happened... as it generally tends to do!

Now, the three of us live hundreds of miles apart, and we still keep in touch, but not nearly as much as I'd like. It's as much my fault as anyone's, because I do what I imagine so many others do: I allow myself to get caught up in work and the things that are happening here, and I make up excuses - "I'm not sure if that's still the right address" or "I don't know what's the best time to call"... It's not that I don't care - I do! - but I often feel like I just don't know what to say, and I don't want to waste their time when their lives are busy, too.

Mandi has always been
an animal person! :-)

It's sad, and I hate the way things are sometimes. At the very least, though, I hope I've made it clear over the years that I love them both, and I'm still here if there's anything I can do to help them - even if I'm not always able to do as much for them as I'd like. I think about this kind of stuff more often than they probably know (or knew before they hopefully read this). I need to make more of a point of it from now on!

What got me thinking about it this time is the fact my brother is graduating from Officer Training School in the Air Force this week (CONGRATULATIONS!), and I wish I could've been there for his graduation, but I just wasn't able to go. I sent a card down with my dad for him, but I feel like nothing I could write in a card - and nothing I could write here - can really say everything I feel, how proud I am of his accomplishments and his courage!

For years, Jay has wanted to fly planes for a living. Me, I've been in a few - even taken them over the ocean before! - but being a pilot is definitely NOT my calling! I really prefer to keep my feet on the ground as much as possible! It's not that I'm afraid of heights so much as I'm just afraid of falling! But Jay is an adventurer, and I'm excited for him! I know it's taken him a long time to get where he is, and I know there's still a lot ahead before he gets to where he really wants to be. I'm proud of him for sticking to it, and I'm proud of him for taking the path of military service.

I'm really not a fan of fighting. I'm disheartened when so many people seem to be gung ho about going to war, because war leads to bitterness and injury and death and the need for more war. I do think there comes a time when you have to defend yourself or stand up for the rights of others, and sometimes I know war seems unavoidable, but I wish people spent more time fostering peace and less time drawing lines in the sand! At the same time, I'm extremely thankful for those who choose to put their lives on the line when the time comes. It takes a special kind of person to stand up and say, "No, I will not participate in this," but it takes another special kind of person to step up and say, "Yes, I will make this sacrifice with my life."

As I was reflecting on all this the other day, I had a wonderful thought...
 My siblings and I shared so much in common when we were little, yet we are also very different from each other. We have different tastes, different personalities, different passions... Jay wants to be a pilot, Mandi's a pet groomer, and I'm a pastor... but in a way, we're all doing the same thing, or at least the things we do are about the same thing...

• The military is about serving, caring for, and defending people when they're unable to take care of themselves, securing their safety as much as possible...
  
• Pet grooming is about doing the same thing for animals - helping them in a way they could not help themselves, making sure they are cared for safely...
  
• Pastoring, likewise, is about serving, caring, helping, defending and most of all trying to point souls to the safety of the Lord...

All of us (whether we always think of it this way or not) are honoring God by honoring his creation. And in that sense, what we do also bears the potential to bring each of us closer to God, if we'll let it! Our parents must've done something right to inspire us each to do what we do!

So I choose today to try to make a point of calling and writing more often. I want to be sure to remind them how much I love and appreciate them, just in case they've forgotten. And I want to make sure we continue to create fun, funny, happy memories whenever we have the opportunity so we can look back and smile together later on, no matter how near or far apart our lives may end up!

Today, I am blessed by the memories I have with my family, by the good things I still see in them both, by the anticipation of more good times to come, and by the thought that (in a plane or on the ground) we each have the chance to use what we do to reach for the skies and get a little closer to Heaven!

Now I think I've got some calls/texts to make...