In preparing for a recent trip, I was looking at my packing list and remembered a quick healing that I had many years ago. It came about as a result of a family tradition from my childhood.
When I was young, we would drive from Illinois to Pennsylvania every summer to visit my relatives. During each trip my parents encouraged us to pack our “spiritual suitcase.” To do that, we would go through the alphabet and take turns “packing” a spiritual quality or gift from God that begins with that letter. My mother would start by saying, “We are going on a trip and with us we are going to take … ability.” The next person continued, “Yes, we are going on a trip, and with us we are going to take ability and beauty.” And so this continued throughout the entire alphabet.
We learned that it was equally important to see what wasn’t packed and what we weren’t taking with us, as negative traits would sometimes come to mind with the different letters of the alphabet. (You can be certain my parents didn’t allow us to pack arrogance or bossiness!)
