When I was growing up my dad took us on camping trips every summer. It was something that I always looked forward to. I loved the freedom of being outdoors and I still do. I still enjoy a relaxing afternoon walking through the field or just walking through the woods listening to all of the sounds of nature. I don't think my mom enjoyed these camping trips as much as us kids as they were work for her, but it was an adventure to me. It was exciting to me and my sister to check out each new campground for the outhouse! As soon as we unpacked our gear we would run to find it and inspect it to see if it would make a suitable place for us to set up our "Barbie's house". This time period of course was back when most campgrounds only had the old stinky outhouses with just a hole and lots of bugs and by no means sanitary by today's standards.
On one of these camping trips when I was maybe eight years old, I remember getting up on top of a picnic table and I began shaking it and singing at the top of my lungs. We weren't the only ones there by the way, so I am sure I must have been somewhat of an embarrassment to my mom but I was oblivious! With every bit of confidence I could muster for an eight year old, I bellowed out...."I'm a WOMAN....W-O-M-A-N!! Cuz I'm a WOMAN.....W-O-M-A-N!"(song from Helen Reddy?) I was so confident, so ready to take on the world, so unafraid of anything!!
I am now fifty and I have been through many hardships. Some have just happened. Everyone has things happen in their lives and we all have to deal with that. Some have more than their share and some people give up at the first sign of trouble! No one knows better than my own family the many things that I have been through. I can't, nor will, list them all , but just to name a few, I've experienced the loss of a child, divorce, disease,rejection,betrayal, cancer of a loved one, caring for a brain injured spouse,and numerous other trials along the way...some which were just natural consequences of my own poor choices. My point is..."I'M STILL STANDING".... not just because I'm a woman, and I am a feisty one indeed...but because ...."I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" Phil.4:13
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