“I’m glad I came”

“We are inclined to long for ease in our lives, but it is a common observation that those who struggle and overcome are the ones who have the greatest satisfaction.” –Camilla E. Kimball

To My Cute Little Sparkles Girl,

I am not sure if your seven year old brain will remember the experience you had on our camping trip last week. On our second day in the mountains a group of us decided to go on a hike. You immediately said that you didn’t want to go and in all honesty I wasn’t sure that I wanted to make you come, because I was fairly certain you’d whine all the way. As everyone started packing snacks and water in their backpacks I turned on my “it’ll-be-fun” voice and told you to get your things ready.

The hike was downhill for the first little while. As we walked I distracted you from your misery with trivia questions about members of our family. Eventually a beautiful lake came into view and we thought we had made it to our destination. That is when our hike leader took us off the trail and up a steep wall of boulders and prickly plants. You held tightly to my hand all the way up and together we took one careful step after another until we reached the top. I don’t think you had ever seen anything like the view we were seeing, standing high above the lake that just minutes before was right in front of us. As we sat down at the edge of the rocky wall we had climbed and you were comfortably chowing down on your Handi Snacks Breadsticks N Cheese, you looked over at me and said, “Mom, I’m glad I came.”

Sometimes in life we have to do things we don’t want to do. Sometimes we find ourselves in places that weren’t our own choosing and we have to decide what we’ll do. There can be some really “hard hikes” that we may be afraid we won’t make it through. But if we can take these hard hikes of life just one step at a time, knowing that God is there holding our hand, (just like I held yours!) we can make it. We can get to the top and look back with a grateful heart, happy to realize that all the trouble we went through trying to get there was absolutely worth it. I hope you’ll remember that.

All My Love,

Mom