Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  (James 1:17 NIV)

Ah the memories that the words “spring break” bring to mind.

For a good number of years, I would suppose twelve or more years at least, we lived our lives pretty much around the school calendar year.  As the children grew older, spring break week became more and more important.  The last five or six years, especially, that they were both in school, we made every effort to ensure a memorable event for them, which often included several of their friends.

Having moved to Georgia when they were both small, there were a plethora of things to do.  We tried to make it an adventure week each year, of going to places like Stone Mountain, the Coke Museum, and the Atlanta Zoo, and the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum, Lake Allatoona, hiking to the North Georgia Mountains, and the list goes on and on.

And then we found Tybee Island, Georgia!  Oh my goodness, the joy of that, then barely inhibited island off the coast of Georgia.  Of course that was some twenty plus years ago now and things change.  But back in the day, you could rent bikes and ride around the island, or bring your own which we did often enough.  You could stand on the pier, or under it, and fish the day away.  Or, you could loll on the beach with only a handful of people to disturb you.  Those were the days!

Now, you have to understand, we were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, so we would rent the very most inexpensive hotel we could find – that was still inhabitable – and there we would enjoy the days of spring break!

We bought fresh shrimp straight off the boat and cooked it in a big metal pot!  Add in a few ears of fresh corn, maybe some red potatoes, a bit of seasoning;  and then a side of fresh tomatoes and you had a meal fit for a king!!!  We flew kites as far into the blue skies as was possible, even getting in trouble once by a lady who was absolutely convinced that our kit string, aka hundreds of feet of heavy fishing line, was going to go out to sea and entrap a poor dolphin or three!

In addition to our two kids, Joey and Amanda, we were known to take a few stragglers along as well, to name a few were Allen, Kimberly, Steve, Amber, and whoever else happened to be on the friends list that year.  I remember the first time that Joey caught a small shark while surf fishing, I remember the look on both their faces when they saw the ocean for the very first time, and I remember the feel of the sun, the sand under our toes, and the smell of the ocean and the sea gulls wheeling overhead.  Ahhhhhh, those my friend are the sights, sounds and smells of spring break!

Now, what I’ve not mentioned is the weeks, no, months and months, that Jim and I scrimped and scraped, and saved our nickles, dimes, quarters, dollar bills, and any loose change we could scrape up to pay for these few weeks of joy and pleasure each year!  Living on a pastor’s salary, even in a huge church such as we were working for, we barely made ends meet.  God had blessed us with the opportunity to begin buying our first home, but that only made things tighter concerning the budget.  There was always the next insurance bill, taxes, repairs, etc.

But come what may, regardless of what we did without the rest of the year, we were going to have SPRING BREAK!!

The two of us, Jim and I both, religiously saved our vacation days to allow for that time away.  Yep, we were going to have Spring Break Week with our kids or bust a gut trying!!!

Now. . . . .  as the years have passed, I am glad that we did sacrifice for these special times.  Regardless of what it cost us in time and money, we have some wonderful memories to carry into our old age.  That, my friends, is worth more than silver or gold.