On Saturday evening, after a long day of traveling, we had arrived in Playa del Carmen, Mexico to begin a fun, relaxing week of family vacation on the beach. Of course there were the momentary stressors; the "I didn't plan it this way" reactions. The kids had a day full of too much screen time and too little food with any nutritional value! I couldn't find things which I knew I had packed, and my spouse wasn't living up to my (unrealistic) expectations.
So goes vacation: "Day 1/2" (that's the first evening after traveling, before I get my mind around all things new and different.)
As I opened my Bible the next morning to continue reading though Matthew, I asked God to speak to me in light of my negative attitude. "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (Ps. 119:18).
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”...9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. (Matthew 12:1,2,9,10-13).Well, God certainly reminded me that my expectations of how things "should" be might be quite different in the face of reality! It is the people I am serving, in this case, my family, who are much more important than my agenda. My flexibility and mindset fixed on the bigger picture was more needful than healthy meals and structured activities from the get-go. In the same way, Jesus didn't bend to the Pharisees' expectations at the expense of those who relied on and needed him, even though the Pharisees' were attempting to enforce what they saw as God's Holy Laws.
From my first experience with foreign travel many years ago, I learned the lesson, "It's not wrong, it's just different." I guess I need to remember this truth: not only with application to others, but also toward myself! I need to be mindful of something I tell my kids all the time, "get a better attitude and we will all be happier!" I needed to relax, adjust my expectations, and allow non-vital matters to work themselves out.
As I'm writing this, we are completing Day three of vacation, and today was blissfully relaxing, joyfully sunny, and definitely a treasured memory!
