We had a fun opportunity to go to the mountains of Georgia where the Appalachian Trail begins. We made the trek up more than 600 stairs to get to our destination the the top of some amazing Falls. As we were climbing and huffing and puffing up each stair anxious to get to the "beauty", I looked back upon this scene. God gave me a gentle nudge as I looked down. So many times in this life, God presents us with a mountain to climb. It may be a mountain of pain, of sorrow, of growth, or even of joy, but as we tend to do, we want to get the hard work of climbing over with so that we can reach the top and see the beauty. In my hurriedness to reach the top, I was missing the beauty of the climb...the stopping every so often to see the beauty of where I was and the even greater beauty of looking below to see how far I came. The peak and end destination was beautiful, but God didn't want me to miss the beauty in the climb.
