Sunshine through the clouds

During our vacatation to Pigeon Forge, we didn't have the best of weather. Our trip there was beautiful and our trip back was the same. Gorgeous, to which I am extremely grateful. But the few days we were actually there, the weather was cold, cloudy and just plain lousy. On Sunday we woke up to 45 degree weather and extreme overcast skies. We went out that morning, had breakfast, and did some souvenier (hope that's how it's spelled..."i before e except after c, and e before n in chicken"- Andy Griffeth) shopping. When we came back to the hotel later that afternoon the kids wanted to go swimming in the indoor pool, so I studied while they played. At one time I looked out the window at the dark skies and had one of my millionth conversations with my Creator. I said, "Jesus, would you please let us have just a little bit of sunshine today? It doesn't have to be much or for very long, but will you please let us have SOME sunshine?" I left it at that.

After a little while, I got the kids out, showered and ready to go. We went and had our picture taken at one of those old-timey places. Kailen and I held guns, and Dani wanted a fan - but we were a tough looking bunch. After leaving there, I decided on a whim to take us to Gatlinburg to the Motion Master inside thrill ride. As we headed out of Pigeon Forge, the clouds continued to get darker and darker. Kailen informed me that they are called "Stratus" Clouds. Mr. Smart Guy. But the awesome part was as we were winding around the mountain, some sunshine began to peek through the clouds. During the entire time we were in Gatlinburg (about an hour and a half) the sun beat down on us and it got to around 65 degrees out. Beautiful! As we headed back to our car, the sun started to fade - but it followed us back to Pigeon Forge. When we got back into town, the sun was beaming strongly on us, but the dark clouds surrounded the area around town - those stratus clouds again. It was bazaar looking - to see it almost black everywhere we looked except up. The kids and I said, "Thank you, Daddy! You're so good to us!" And He is!

It's amazing how our circumstances can look black all around us, but if we look up, we see the beauty of the sunshine beaming down. We have to keep our focus. One thing that I'm learning right now is that the enemy is a great Distracter. He wants our eyes off of the mark and he doesn't care what is the source of our distraction. Distraction is his business. We have to remain focused with our eyes on the the Lord, remembering what's real and true and trusting that he will indeed bring the sunshine through the clouds.