Our Five Minute Friday prompt this week is—TIME. This largely unedited “rough draft” form of writing stretches this perfectionist, in the best of ways. I write for five minutes on a given topic. If you’re interested in learning more about 5-Minute Fridays, check out our hostess, Kate Motaung’s site. Or, click on the link at the bottom of this post. As you read my simpler Friday posts, I hope you’ll join in the conversation!
There’s so much I could have said about this topic, but I narrowed it down to today’s life lesson. I have a suspicion Time will figure into more blog posts. 🙂 And I confess, I went a wee bit over.
TIME
The older my boys get, the faster time flies.
There are so many distractions that eat up the minutes in a day. So many things to take care of that require my attention be focused on a screen.
There’s a place and a time for this, yes.
But my boys . . . they only live this day once. They come home from school with issues. And, when I’m distracted, it’s beyond easy to deal with the surface disrespect, the incomplete homework the binder left at school. So easy to reprimand.
But it takes a willingness to give of “my” time to get below the surface of that disrespectful answer.
Today one boy came home, glibly declared he’d left an important binder at school. And wrote me a note that about broke my heart.
God stopped me right there.
I went to his room. He poured out the struggles, the frustrations, the weariness that comes from being made to feel less-than by his peers.
I wish I had the answers! But, as my boys grow older, I won’t always have the perfect response to their heartbreaks. Sometimes, all I can give them is my time, my heart.
My heart needs to be aligned with Jesus first. This takes time.
Yes, my boys will never be this young again.
They deserve my time—my full attention—as they walk through life’s hard during their pre-teen and teen years. When I’m focused on my to-do’s, its easy to forget how painful these years are. How painful it is to be the last picked for a team on the playground.
Time is a gift I can give to my children. Giving them time means my time won’t be spent on something I’m trying to accomplish.
When it comes right down to it, my family is the most important priority God’s given me. He’s the giver of all good gifts, and that includes time. But, He leaves the choice up to me as to how I use it.
If I’m not willing to spend the time God gives me on them, then His gift is wasted. The boys are hardened. And I lose out.
I’m working to gift the time God gives me to those who are most important in my life.
What about you? How do you make choices to spend your time wisely? How do you gift your time to others?
Take a moment and read Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday post on Time.
Jeanne Takenaka 