Spending Time with Your Family

February 12, 2024 • Chris Harper
Spending time with your family is crucial! Your time with your kids goes faster than you can imagine!

"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." -  Psalms 90:12

I recently saw a statistic that floored me. Nearly 95% of all the time you spend [in-person] with your children will happen before they turn 18. 

The last 5% of in-person time will be stretched over 50'ish years. 

Let that statistic sink in. The first 18 are BIG. 18 summers. 18 Christmases. 18 Birthdays. 6,570 days and then you’ll see your kids occasionally, at best. This means every day counts, even the ordinary ones. Especially the ordinary ones. 

Too often, I waste the ordinary stuff of life. Things like taking my kids to school, building legos, piano recitals, and swimming in the backyard. Yet this is the time God has given me. A friend of mine recently said, "There is not some "magical" strategic season; there is just now. It's in the daily, frustrating, exhausting, distracted, painful, and overwhelming everyday moments of life that you are given to do life with your kids."

Ordinary is Not Secondary

My encouragement: don’t waste the ordinary moments. Quality and quantity of time are not your biggest concern—the brevity of time is what you're up against. Your days are numbered. Decide today what you'll do with them. When you find yourself in the ordinary, you have two options:

Waste the ordinary and regret it for the rest of your life. Or, redeem the ordinary, using everyday moments to teach, love, celebrate, laugh, and cry—displaying the goodness and mercy of God.

Men, redeem the ordinary. Be patient. Savor the mundane. Fight distractions. Like the psalmist said, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." In other words, "time isn't the main thing—it's the only thing.”

Thoughts on time with your family…

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