Dulles Airport, Chocolate Milk & Adventures

I got caught.

I love taking people with me to do things, mundane things, exciting things, I love having people come along with me. A huge part of my discipleship with the youth kiddos is having them come with me when I do things, so they can see how I live out my faith in everyday life, exciting or not. I have a "Includer" strength and I have "Positivity" strength, which in turns means I invite people to join me whenever I can, AND I can change perspectives on mundane-not-so-fun tasks to a positive fun adventure! Let's be honest, its always funner (I know that is not a word, bear with me though) to do icky tasks with someone you can laugh with and have fun with.

It was Christmas break for Summer Joy a couple weeks ago, so it meant we were hanging out a lot, she was doing things with me, helping me run errands and it was a win-win, she was making my errands super-fun and full of laughter, and she wasn't sitting at home sulking over break. :-)

I had Summer spend the night one night, so we could get up early because I had agreed to pick up a friend from the airport, and not just any airport. Dulles Airport.

We got up at 6:30am, and all of a sudden Summer had taken a "grumpy-I'm-not-completely-awake-this-early-in-the-morning" pill.

"WHY are we up at 6:30am again? Tell me WHY?!" Summer asks.

I enthusiastically replied with, "Its gonna be an adventure that we will never forget!! It will be so much fun! Steffanie doesn't know you are coming, and it will be a great surprise!!"

As we got ready, fumbled around my house and left, we got in the car and were talking and I was again trying to "sell" the adventure we were going on. Summer said something that caught me in my tracks, and I knew I "got caught".

Summer exclaimed, "Adventures is just another way for you to drag me to things you don't want to do!"

I just about died laughing. Yeah, sure there are some things that I am not as enthusiastic about, and sure, I love including other people with me, so its not as drab, but Summer sure had some insight that day.

My response was this, "Yeah, sure adventures may be another word for doing things that I don't want to do, BUT I bring others and you along because it makes the things I don't want to do more fun! It gives us memories, opportunities to laugh about circling the airport TWENTY times waiting for Steffanie and her luggage."

And that is the honest truth. Adventures are, for me, taking the mundane and adding a little bit of the unknown to it, whether its adding a person, changing the route, and or extending offers to pick up friends from the airport and dragging middle-schoolers out of bed for it. I mean, where is the adventure in only dragging myself out of bed? Now I have a story of grumpy Summer AND a lot of things to laugh about.. (ie. Chocolate milk & donuts, circling Dulles, the creepy police man, going 5 mph while circling and starting a trend. Yes, it was an adventure indeed!)

Invite someone along with you on your next "mundane" task and create an adventure! Because the biggest opportunities for discipleship are shared experiences and just regular conversations that happen along the way.