Our first camping trip

Proverbs 25:25-28 (NIV)

Like cold water to a weary soul
   is good news from a distant land.
Like a muddied spring or a polluted well   
are the righteous who give way to the wicked.
It is not good to eat too much honey,
   nor is it honorable to search out matters that are too deep.
Like a city whose walls are broken through
   is a person who lacks self-control.

I wrote Friday about how summer was starting for us, and it certainly takes full effect today as we prepare to spend all day outdoors as part of a Boy Scout activity. The whole family will start the party around noon, then Jack and I will camp overnight (fingers crossed we make it so sunrise) and have breakfast the next morning.

This is the annual graduation weekend where all the Scouts get promoted to the next level, and though Jack just signed on to Cub Scouts in March and has been to maybe five official functions, he’s still allowed to be included with everything. And despite our reservations about the various potentially complicating factors of spending roughly 24 outdoors with what essentially is a big group of somewhat regimented strangers, we’re going to hope for the best, guard for the worst and probably find it lands somewhere in the middle.

A good chunk of the reason for my cautious optimism is that I realize how much Jack could enjoy this weekend if everything goes well — and how much fun it could be for just the two of us. But I also realize how the inverse could play out because it’s happened so many times before. But other complete failures (such as the doomed-from-the-start tae kwon do experience) did not hold a similar degree of promise. I was frustrated with the immediate situation, but I was not mourning what could have been.

If this all sounds like too much negativity for a Sunny June Saturday, well, this tends to be the position I find myself in after eight years of the parenting roller coaster. Much like being a Cubs fan, you condition yourself to expect some degree of failure. Things work out great every once in a while (way more often with parenting than with the Cubs), but there’s always something you wished would have gone better. Yet if you’re prepared for those outcomes, you learn how to deal with them. The worst pain comes when you convince yourself, “This time will be different.” Better to be pleasantly surprised than to be unexpectedly demoralized. Trust me on this one.

So much like last weekend, when duty called (find some clothes, pack the van, grab a cooler), so too must I prepare for this weekend’s adventure. It might be, could be, should be fantastic. Hopefully tomorrow I can report it was.

A prayer for June 2:

Lord, thank you for this opportunity to spend a weekend together as a family. Please give us the energy and patience required to participate in all the activities. Thank you for all the volunteers who work so hard to make these events possible, and please help us to remember to respect their contributions and authority. Amen.