Living in Western North Carolina affords me so many opportunities to see the beautiful handiwork of God. Admittedly, however, I take many of those opportunities for granted by simply not ever visiting those scenic places. My husband, daughter, and I recently talked about making more of a concerted effort to take in the beauty of God’s creation more often. We began by taking a trip to Grandfather Mountain in the Linville/Blowing Rock area this past Saturday. I’ve been once before, but it’s been a long time ago. Chris and Anna had never been. The drive up was beautiful – the weather was perfect – the scenery was simply…WOW (see below)!!! Take time to ask God to really show you the beauty of this world. You don’t have to even live in a place like Western NC, because it’s all around you. Ask Him to open your eyes to see the things of beauty that way that He sees them. “And God saw that it was good.”

In parenting my daughter, I often wonder if she “gets it”. In other words, do all those things that I try to teach her ever sink in…will she understand why I try to instill the values that I do…will she wonder why I’m strict in some areas, passive in others, and unwavering in a select group? I realize that I may never get to see the results of my parenting in certain areas until she is an adult herself one day. But…God gave me a glimpse that she DOES understand one thing: DEBT is not supposed to be normal. She shared with me a clip of a conversation she had with her 12-year-old cousin on Sunday. It goes something like this…

Cousin: “Everybody has to go into debt at some point.”

Anna: “No they don’t.”

Cousin: “Yes, they do. Like…if you’re going to buy a new boat, you get a loan to buy the boat and pay it back later.”

Anna: “No, you wait until you’ve saved up the money to the buy the boat and then you get the boat.”

Cousin: “Hmmm…that makes sense. How did you know that?”

Anna: “My mom and step-dad listen to Dave Ramsey all the time, and they tell me all the time to never get into debt.”

YES!!!!!!! She gets it!!!!