The Fun of 24 Years

My husband and I are away this week celebrating our 24th anniversary. We are having so much fun and totally loving the time of relaxing and reconnecting.

Each year we try to hit up some place new to explore. This year finds us in the upper wine country of California. A little bit more dry than we had anticipated and care for. But as long as we are together does it really matter?

We have spent time hiking, store front walking, movie time and lots of do nothing time. It has been really really really nice. Can you tell I am happy?

The other night we heard about a nice restaurant in the next town over that had a great selection of healthy food choices, a wonderful atmosphere AND live jazz entertainment. Wahoo! We were all over it. We sat out in the cool evening under the autumn trees and enjoyed our dinner while listening to a jazz band that ended up being from our home town. That was a fun coincidence. Even more fun was finding our that our table neighbors were also our resort neighbors and we had a lot in common.


Yesterday we went out to the dock to catch the sunset and found an interesting sight. We happened upon a young boy walking his two baby goats. It was quite a scene watching him attempt to control and command those babies when they had strong wills of independent thought. All THEY wanted to do was examine and make friends with us. Actually it was quite a good experience for me. I have to confess that for some unknown reason I have always been timid and sort of afraid of goats. But these little guys wanted to play and be petted just like my fuzzy dog boys back home.

Isn't he cute?!

This is really random but we watched a movie the other night that has been on my mind. You may (or may not) be surprised to know that I am a sci-fi movie fan. I like romance and comedy and enjoy all types of action. But given the choice, I think I will pick a sci-fi over all of them every time. Along with that preference, I take great delight in finding my own personal deeper meaning in whatever I watch. To me, everything is a learning experience.

Anyway, the movie we watched was a new one that is out now with Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith called After Earth. It is definitely sci-fi. My own quick tag for the movie is that father and son crash land their space ship on the (no longer inhabited) earth and the son is their only chance for survival. To be the hero, he must overcome multiple life and death struggles as he races against the clock to activate a distress beacon.

The thing about this movie is that the son is riddled with self doubt and performance issues. His dad seems to be the perfect tough guy and he wants nothing more than to measure up to the self inflicted approval of his father. Mental pressure at it's depth and I have certainly put those shoes on a time or two in my life.

I don't want to spoil the movie for you if you are planning to see it. So spoiler alert ahead  if you want to skim over or stop reading.

Something that I really keyed into with this movie was the concept of fear. There is an animal in the movie that hunts humans for the sole purpose of killing them. It cannot see or hear. It hunts by the smell of fear.
It caused me to think how the enemy of God thrives on our fear. He uses it to ruin and sabotage us....to destroy us.

Another thing that I really keyed in to was a speech that the father gave to the son. This is totally my phrasing because it was a long speech.....He said, "We all have life struggles. We all have times when we are in danger. We all have horrible things around us. Those are the real things. Danger is a real thing. But fear is a choice. Fear is not real because it only exists in our minds."

Using that speech as a catalyst, every time the son would begin to spin out of emotional control, the father would say, "Take a knee soldier." This was a time to stop, close his eyes and take in the moment. Assess the situation around him and evaluate the truth.

That very much reminded me that as God's daughter and His soldier, when things around me swirl out of control and fear creeps in, I need to get to my knees and assess my truth. What is that truth? God is real. God is in control. The hunter has no power of me and cannot harm me because the fear is only a lie....a fabrication in my mind.

Goodness that just excites me so much!
So in the end of the movie when the hunter is breathing and dripping drool over the son and the son is in that pivotal moment of truth, does he let go of fear?
Well, I won't tell you the ending. You can see it for yourself. :-)
 

Yesterday's sunset.

God bless you this week in all you do. Know without a doubt that you are loved with a pure and amazing love by the most incredible creator of forever.