MAKE TIME AND TAKE TIME

Well, here we are at the end of another school year. Class awards, graduations for high school and kindergarten, field day and the end of the year picnic are all that is left. Where does the time go?
It is a fact of life that time stands still for no one. The years go by, our children grow at amazing speed, and years that at one time actually took 365 days to get through, now seem like they go twice as fast. So, what do we do to slow down time? Well, reality is we can’t, but maybe I can suggest a few things that might make the time we have more meaningful.

1. Spend as much time together as you can handle.

Why would I say it like that, you ask? Because, sometimes we do need a break, but sometimes we get so busy with life that we lose those important moments in life. Take that time, and make the time, to do the routine things together as a family. Cooking, baking, eating, cleaning can be done as a family, and enjoyed as a family. Teaching our children, the “family recipes” that they can take and share with their children one day is a great opportunity.
Take a walk, a bike ride, swimming, playing catch, whatever you can think of, these are the opportunities that we need to take, and the lifelong memories we can make.

1. Make the most of every opportunity.

Life can be stressful. Spending time together and trying to do things that we have planned can be stressful. We tend to rush from one thing to the next without even thinking about it. We have become a “drive through” society where we need it now so we can get to the next task. On top of that we have lost the ability to put the technology away. We are so afraid we might miss a phone call, a text, or some event that has no bearing on the moment we are living. When I was growing up, we had one land line phone and no answering machine. If someone wanted to find you they had to keep calling, or go to your house and knock on the door. I know that seems so barbaric, so intrusive, but it actually worked. As a kid, if you wanted to know where everyone was hanging out, you looked for the house where all the bikes were laying in the yard.
The opportunities to send time and make memories will present themselves, we just have to purposefully make and take the time. Take pictures, videos, keep a journal, and make sure you save these things to the “cloud,” so there are always available wherever you may be. You don’t want to one day try to find picture or video and it not be in your phone.

1. Finally, and most importantly, just slow down.

We have to live as the old adage goes, “Slow down and smell the roses.” When was the last time you actually did that? When was the last time you actually tasted the food you were eating? I know that sounds strange, but take a moment and think about it. We are moving so fast, and have to get to the next thing that we forget to slow down and taste, smell, see, hear and feel. We may not have the power to slow down time, but we do have the power to slow down life. We move so fast that we have to be reminded to take a breath. We are drowning in stuff and things that we don’t realize we have forgotten to come up for air. The nice thing is, when we stop, lift our heads out of the chaos and stress of life, take that deep breath, we will see the things that are truly the most important, our children, our families, the life we dreamed about, but allowed everything else to stop us from living it.
SLOW DOWN, MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY, AND SPEND TIME TOGETHER!
I prat that this summer you have plans to do those three things. Time is short and moves at the pace God has set, but life doesn’t’ have to pass us by. We are all given the same number of seconds, minutes and hours in a day. The difference is how we use the time given.
James 4:13-15 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 
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