Lessons Learned While on Vacation

Last night, we drove in from Amarillo. We had been gone on vacation to Colorado for over a week. We stayed with some good friends of ours; they are like grandparents to our kids. The first part of the week was problem free. The drive up there was unexpectedly pleasant (having 2 toddlers in the backseat) and we made great time. No one killed anyone else and there were no problems to speak of. After getting rested Saturday evening, we went to church with the Bennett's on Sunday moring. Later that afternoon, we took the kids up to Estes Park and played in the snow. Monday, we went with Bruce to Denver and visited the Children's Museum. Ethan loved playing in a work station of tools and Laurel had a ball in the pretend grocery shopping area. On Tuesday, Clint and I took the kids up to Estes Park to hike on some easy trails. We had a backpack for Laurel to ride in which worked out great.
From there, our trip went downhill. (though we went uphill) Clint and I got up at about 2:30 the next morning to hike up Long's Peak. You have to start that early if you hope to make it down before inclement weather. The hike all morning was very pleasant. We saw ptarmigan and elk as well as all sorts of neat wildflowers. We watched the sunrise and had a very good time. Once we made it to the Boulder Fields (and I do mean boulders) the hike became increasingly difficult. By the time we made it to the Keyhole we were starting to get tired, but the hardest part was yet to come. I hadn't realized that we would literally be climbling up over big rocks all the way to the top and that, right alongside a steep cliff. Still we kept going. Clint was rethinking our decision, though he had done this same route before (10 years earlier) Now, that we have kids to think about, it didn't seem so exciting. Well, we made it up to a place called the Narrows, which is not very far from the summit and felt like the Lord was telling us that this was far enough and not worth continuing. I kept thinking about my babies. And we had been hiking for 8 hours at this point. We had planned on eating a hot meal at the top, but now our thoughts were turned on making it down which was mostly done by scooting down on our bottoms from rock to rock. My legs were fatiguing by this time and I was trying to stay as close to the mountain as possible, not trusting my weakening muscles. I had a short bout of nausea, most likely from altitude sickness. Then, Clint got really sick and we could only go a few feet at a time. In retrospect we should have stopped and made ourselves eat, but kept thinking about getting off the mountain, and also, a storm was coming up and we felt the urgency to evacuate. Well, it took us until 6:30 to make it back to our car. We had been hiking for 15 hours straight with only snack foods and we had run out of water on the way down. Our water filter didn't work and I was not chancing guiardia. It sleeted on us for a few minutes and we were only momentarily caught up in a thunderstorm above treeline. The last few miles were not fun! We were "out of gas" and parched. Later in the week, I discovered that my engagement ring was lost. It is possible that I lost it on the mountain when I placed it in my jacket, or when I placed a couple of rocks in my jacket for the kids. When I discovered it was missing on Friday before we started home, I was really struggling with the Lord. Actually, I was struggling because I had totally trusted Him when I first learned it was missing. I knew that He would provide and show me where to look. It was only after searching all day with no resolution that I became depressed about the ring. It is not that I care about having an expensive ring, but that this ring so symbolized my love for Clint. He picked it out for me and gave it to me on the night we declared our love and commitment for each other; and there can be no replacement for that time in our life. I realize that I still have Him and it is only a "thing" but still it is a hard thing to say goodbye to. Also, the day before we had had a slight accident in our rental car and the bumper had a dent in it. I had been struggling some with that and reaffirming that situation to the Lord. I really felt like this was enough of a stretching for me and then when the ring disappeared, I felt betrayed and given something past what I could handle.
So the Lessons I learned from this trip are:
1. I am not yet in a place where I can completely abandon my circumstances to the Lord; He still has some disciplining to do with me concerning this.
2. I have no right to any possession, not even something as sacred my engagement ring.
3. Priorities change as one's life changes. Being with my children is far more exciting than climbing a 14,000 ft. mountain.
4. When you are fatigued or hungry and thirsty, it is easy to doubt the Lord's working and Satan can more easily get a foothold. Wear your armor.
5. Though we clearly felt the Lord calling us to turn back at the Narrows, Satan still tries to discourage this special moment of obedience by making me doubt it really was the Lord when other discouraging moments come my way or when someone sounds disappointed about us not making it all the way to the summit. I still have to stop and recognize that what we did was an act of obedience and reaffirm to myself that there could be no victory in making it to the top if the Lord directed us home.
6. The Lord is faithful, even if we cannot see His faithfulness with our own eyes.