A Joyful Keeper

These past few days I have been thinking once again about my priorities and the goals I believe God has for me during this season in my life. I was thinking how quickly my children are growing, and how many more years I have with them to teach them at home, before they leave to their own homes. My youngest will officially finish school in about 10 years time. That’s not long! I then thought about what things I was involved in now that I will look back on and say,

“Oh, how I wish I had waited till the children had left home to do that, and spent more time with them instead.”

Life is so short. Children grow up so quickly. I don’t want to look at them when they are older and wish I had spent more time with them. You may ask what I mean by that. After all, I am a homeschooling mother. I spend ALL day, every day, 24/7 with them!! LOL! True. But I there is a difference between having my children around me all the time and spending time with them.

Let me give you an example that is very dear to my heart. I love my hobbies. Over the years they have been different. Reading, sewing, scrapbooking. There is nothing wrong with these hobbies. There is nothing wrong with spending time doing these things. But there is if they take the place of doing other things I should be doing - like spending time with my children. I sometimes catch myself telling them that I will be done in a minute… with my sewing, or reading, or computer time. That minute easily stretches to become minutes…. sometimes hours! Before I know it, the afternoon has gone by, and I haven’t played that game or made that puzzle with the children, or even sat with my daughter teaching HER how to sew…

Again, I don’t mean that I need to be spending every single minute of the day with my children, giving them my undivided attention. I think you know what I am trying to say. I have so many choices to make during this season when my children are growing up. I want to choose the right things, and not get distracted with things that I can easily do later, when they have left home and I am alone all day.

We have so many things that pull us and try to get our attention. Just being a keeper of the home is a full time job, let alone homeschooling on top of that! I constantly find myself re-evaluating my goals, activities and priorities. It is not a thing I do once a year, as a “New Year’s Resolution” that is broken a week later…. but with my short attention span, it is something I need to do regularly. Depending on my frame of mind, I even need to be doing this daily or weekly! LOL! What are the important things in my life at the moment? Who are the important people in my life right now? What should I be investing most of my time in today?

Benjamin Franklin said:

“Does thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

Our time here on earth is so fleeting. How we spend it is entirely up to us. I don’t want to squander it on things that will not last….

Matthew 6:19 - 21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy,

and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 7:24 am and is filed under Monday Musings, This and That. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.