What I Wish I Had Known - Terrie Chevaillier

I just picked up one my sons from Sky Ranch this past weekend and even though I knew a few things to be true, I found myself wishing again that I had not forgotten what I knew!  If you are a mom, I am almost certain you can relate.

I knew that he would be exhausted, but somehow I forgot as I kept expecting him to be more talkative. Some of these things come out slowly throughout the week as he shares the experiences he wants us to know about.  Even though he says little- it doesn’t mean that big didn’t happen.  I knew all of his clothes would be wet and damp but somehow forgot about that and put it off until the next day! 

I wish I had known that my boys didn’t really care about the care packages as much as I obsessed over them being perfect.  This year it took less than two minutes to run down the candy isle at the grocery store when I was already there grabbing my groceries (no special trip) and picked five different sour type candy bags (enough for the entire cabin as they love to share) and grabbed some manila envelopes and stuffed the candy in there and used a big sharpie and wrote their name on the outside and cabin number.  Done!  What had taken multiple days in years past, was trimmed down to five minutes total by year fourteen!

Perhaps why I grew to not obsess so about the gift bags was because I have come to know the much larger gift that keeps on giving that we get at Sky Ranch.  On year one as campers, I wish I had known when my oldest starting attending at the age of ten that he would gain relationships that were beyond my imagination in terms of mentoring and Christian community that would take him into his twenties. Had I known, perhaps on those days when I was tempted to think all was not well and I had screwed up and hadn’t done this thing or that thing right to help him on the pathway to “success” that some of the most godly wise men and women would be his best companions, I am sure my soul would have quieted itself within me!  The list is so long now of those we love and stay in touch with from Sky Ranch that it causes me to say, “thank you God- you see and you provide.”

What I do know is that I will always tear up at the front gate the minute I see the big Sky sign and when they play the video at closing ceremony, I feel God’s love and care for my children in a depth that I don’t experience any other time of the year. 

I hope that you get to know what I wish I had known and what I now know.  God’s unconditional love is on display at Sky Ranch!  Go see and then tell!