Arriving at Mt. Nebo State Park always feels like we've come home. No matter which cabin we choose, we have a restful place to lay our head, a safe sphere in which to make memories and laugh.
When we asked our kids what was important to them for closure and "one last time" before Sarah and Benjamin headed off to college and the rest of us headed back to the Solomon Islands, the resounding answer was to go back to Mt. Nebo.
So we found room in the budget and on the calendar.
We hit the trails.
And enjoyed the view.
Got a little bit silly, too.
The most important part of this trip to me was providing closure on a family of six and launching two college students and a family of four.
A simple way to do that? Utilizing the beautiful Every Moment Holy and the thoughtful prayer for students inside. After the three oldest Choates got up early to watch the sunrise,
(my bedhead is much worse than Aaron's!) and drink our coffee,
the whole family gathered around the breakfast table outside and took turns reading the liturgy for students and scholars. This is just a small portion:
"Give me a deepening knowledge of truth and a finer discernment of the ideas I encounter in my studies. Guard my mind always against error, and guard also my heart against the temptation to compare my own performance to the work of my peers, and so to fall into either of the twin traps of shame or pride."
Even as we played dominoes and hiked more trails later in the morning, the words kept echoing as a blessing for my college kids...
"Grant instead that I might happily steward what scholarly gifts you have apportioned me, and that I might do so as means of preparing myself for service to you and to others, my identity drawn from your love and forgiveness, and not from my grades or accolades here."
It's time to draw back the bow and shoot...
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