Traveling Journal: Harding University (Part 1)

This was a whirlwind of a week. We needed to get Kason to Harding by Thursday morning for his college orientation. The only hang up was I had class until 9pm the night before and it was an 8 hour drive from where I live to Searcy, Arkansas.

After trying to figure out the best solution: do we take two cars, do I not go and let Melanie and Kason go, do I fly in the next day and drive back with them, etc; we made the decision to all drive together that night.

So, Melanie and Kason picked me up from my class at 9pm and we headed for Arkansas. I drove the majority of it to let Melanie sleep because, as the morning person, she was probably going to do most of the driving the next morning. We drove to Texarkana to stop for the night, arriving at 1:30am in the morning. We got up to our room, poured ourselves into bed, and was back up at 5:30am the SAME morning to finish our drive to Searcy, getting to Harding by 9:00am. It was tough!

When we finally went into the auditorium to hear the same “you should be proud of yourself and proud of your student” speech that we heard with Rylan a couple years earlier, this statement kept replaying in my brain, “O, what we do for our kids!”

We drove almost 1,000 miles in two days, just for our kid.

We rented a hotel room and paid full price to only stay in the thing 4 hours and get back on the road, just for our kid.

While he slept in the backseat, living his best life, I went into a shady gas station to get him a white gatorade, but if they didn’t have white, then get him blue, but not the dark blue but the light blue, just for our kid.

We sat through the same exact presentation we sat through 2 years ago, without complaining, just for our kid.

And do you know what? I would do it all over again.

This week was probably the worst week for me to get away and go with him to Harding, but it wasn’t about me, it was about him.

I think that is a little of what God must feel for us.

Luke 12:32 says…

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.“

Matthew 7:7-11 says…

“⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

2 Corinthians 6:16b, 18 says…

“I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people… and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Isn’t it weird that we are parents are so willing to sacrifice for our kids, even when they probably don’t deserve it. Even when they annoy us or take advantage of us and are not grateful. Even when it costs us something they know nothing about.

I think that is ingrained in us as parents, because that is engrained in the character of God, our Father.

What we do for our kids, we learned from our Father.

Make sure to take some time today to tell your Father “thank you” for everything he has done and continues to do.

Be blessed,

Paul