The past few days, I’ve been thinking about just driving. I love to drive and sometimes a lot of times I just enjoy driving around ~ usually in hopes of finding places to take pictures. Last night though, I remembered October 19th, again.

Dad and I were going to take turns driving to MO (to a family reunion on my mom’s side of the family) – I would drive there, he would drive back. A day or so before I think it was, he backed out to play in a golf tournament. I was really bummed because I really wanted this to be one of our one day many road trips together, especially once he retired.

I told Dad I didn’t think I could drive 3 hours there and then later 3 hours back again. “You can do it, I know you can.” Glad someone believed in me because I was pretty skeptical. I had thought about not even driving my own vehicle because I didn’t want to go without him. I went anyway ~ I knew if I didn’t do it on my own then, I’d never do it – I’d just keep pushing it off. He called a few times during that day and asked how it was going, how the weather was, etc. While we were out it in the middle of nowhere, MO, I didn’t have reception so I had missed his call and plus on the way out there it was spotty anyway.

His voicemail is still on my phone and I listen every once in a while, like this morning. It was a beautiful day for both of us, minus that morning when I had to drive in the dark, in the rain through one lane highway construction zones. We talked about my awesome gas mileage I was getting and how smooth the ride was in a mustang.

Dad’s encouragement that day, like so many other times in my life, continues to encourage me today. When I’m feeling like I’m not good enough or I’m just not feeling up to a challenge, I hear him tell me I can do it and that it’s going to all work out.

Right now, I know if he were still here, we’d be cruising together every day because there’s not much else to do (his sports aren’t on and he’d be left to watch only highlights and flashbacks).

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11