A cloud-free and cobalt blue sky reminded me this weekend of our family vacation to Disney World last January. My husband Jeff had returned home from a 10-month deployment to Afghanistan and this was our celebration vacation. It was pretty much perfect.
One of my most fun memories didn’t actually have anything to do with Disney.
A skywriter was circling Epcot as we walked our way from Soarin’ to Mission: Space. Our daughters Abby Kate and Lily had never seen a spectacle like this, and they were as entertained by the plane as anything Disney was offering at that moment.
We watched while the pilot painted the sky.
L… O…
As the plane spun, we tried to guess the next letters. We were encouraged (and Jeff and I somewhat relieved) when the plane finished its last loop-de-loop:
“Love God”
Very cool, we thought. Believing the show was over, we turned our eyes back to the familiar and favorite sites inside the park. Then, the plane returned and began to write again.
P… U…
“Put”
We arrived at the next attraction and hurried through the que to board, hopeful the words would hang in the sky long enough for us to see the rest. They did not. So, we took turns guessing what the message might have been.
“Love God. Put offering!” Abby Kate said with the kind of confidence she carries in all her opinions. Jeff and I joked that the finance committee at our church might recruit her.
I never decided my thoughts that day at Disney. I considered them again as I observed a similar blue sky while driving the interstate on Saturday.
I know exactly what my daddy would write:
Love God. Put Him first.
I have countless cards and letters from my college days in which daddy spelled out his priorities for me:
- God
- Study
- Daddy
It wasn’t a bad list.
Study is no longer something I must do. Sadly, writing to my daddy isn’t either. He’s been gone nearly 13 years. Still, I want to keep him on my list. His words continue to influence my priorities.
One of my favorite writings from daddy is a Sunday School lesson on the Lord’s Prayer. It echoes his advice to Love God. Put Him First.
“If you are too busy to pray then you can’t have God in control of your life.”
Life competes for the top spot on our list, doesn’t it?
Family.
Work.
Chores.
Naps.
(OK, that last one might just be me.)
I’m up past midnight writing this blog, even though I know my priority should be sleep. I can only imagine what my daddy would say about that.
As you start a new week, I encourage you to consider how you would fill in the blank.
Love God. Put _________________.
We may not be pilots painting words in the sky, but we are writing a message that others see every day.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”‘
(Matthew 22:37)
