Saturday, March 12, 2011

Finding Time.

It is hard, as a parent, to find time. I'm sure many of you know what I mean.

Time to clean.
Time to do Laundry.
Time to cook dinner, or lunch, or breakfast, or snack, or...
Time for baths.
Time for teeth brushing.
Time for bedtime stories.
Time for anytime stories.
Time for crafts.
Time for games.
Time for prayers.
Time for snuggles.
Time.

And that's just the Time for the kids. That doesn't include Time for parents to be adults!

How many times have you heard someone say "There just aren't enough hours in the day"? I must have heard this who knows how often growing up. I never believed it. And then I had children, and now I understand. There really isn't enough time.

Time to watch them grow.
Time to slow them down.
Time to hold them.
Time to play with them.
Time to love them.
Time to savor THIS moment or THAT first.

They grow up too quickly. It goes by too fast. Yesterday, I was holding my sweet baby boy in my arms for the very first time. Today, he's six years old! He is in Kindergarten, he can tie his own shoes, read his own books and fly his own kites. Soon he'll be riding his bike with no training wheels, doing his own homework and countless other things that I'm not ready for yet. And I wonder, where did the time go?

Yesterday, we were oohing and aahing over our brand new baby girl. Today she is running, jumping, galloping, feeding herself with a fork and spoon, talking in sentences, picking out her own shoes (yes, it's apparently bred into female DNA, that whole shoe thing. Or at least, our family DNA. She is quite the shoe connoisseur already, and is very particular about those shoes.), brushing her own teeth. Before I know it, she will be the one tying her own shoes, flying her own kite, reading her own books. And just like with Monster Boy, I'm left wondering where the time flew to.

It is Lent. Lent is a big deal in our religion. I won't get all preachy about the whys and wherefores. But as I was reflecting on this on Ash Wednesday, our priest had a very good sermon about the point of Lent. And one of his suggestions is to give up our time. To do something that we don't normally make the time to do, to have THAT be our sacrifice of ourselves during this season of sacrifice. That really resonated with me.

This Lent, I'm TAKING the time. The time to remember, the time to enjoy. The time I don't normally take. I'm going to make it be there, for my kids, for me. Each night, Daddy Mac and I are reading from our Couples Bible. Each night, we are taking time for our faith. Each day, I am doing something special with my kids. An art project. Cooking dinner together, putting away laundry together. Reading an extra book at bedtime, watching a special show after school. Sitting down at the table for snack. We are taking TIME for our kids.

Because if we don't, it's time just wasted. And who wants to waste what little time we have?

No comments:

Post a Comment