Living Legacy - Time

Take Time for Family

‘How much time does tv take away from you being a responsible family member.  How much tv is too much in the effort to make our family stronger?  What other distractions take away from the family time we so desperately need?  What sacrifices in my events or wants can help our family draw closer together. Why is it important to evaluate my how my family spends it time?

Time is precious thing and the following poem is written with this in mind.

No Time to Play - My precious boy with the golden hair 
Came up one day beside my chair
And fell upon his bended knee
 And said, “Oh, Mommy, please play with me!”I said, “Not now, go on and play;
I’ve got so much to do today.”
He smiled through tears in eyes so blue
When I said, “We’ll play when I get through.”But the chores lasted all through the day
 And I never did find time to play. 
When supper was over and dishes done ,
I was much too tired for my little son.I tucked him in and kissed his cheek 
And watched my angel fall asleep.
As I tossed and turned upon my bed, 
Those words kept ringing in my head,“Not now, son, go on and play,
 I’ve got so much to do today.”
I fell asleep and in a minute’s span, 
My little boy is a full-grown man.  No toys are there to clutter the floor;
 No dirty fingerprints on the door;
No snacks to fix; no tears to dry;
The rooms just echo my lonely sigh. And now I’ve got the time to play;
 But my precious boy is gone away. 
I awoke myself with a pitiful scream
 And realized it was just a dream For across the room in his little bed, 
Lay my curly-haired boy, the sleepy-head .
My work will wait ‘til another day 
For now I must find some time to play.

We must take time to play together as a family.  If mom and dad are too busy to play, then they are too busy.  Play time has to be planned for or it will be left out.  Play time is more than a vacation twice a  year.  It’s more than taking your kids to their next event.  Play time is the time when we get to put our guard down and just have fun.  Every member of the family needs to realize that time is slipping by and play time is the best time to deepen our family’s love for each other.  The following story illustrates the need to cherish each and every moment of every day, because they will soon be gone.

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day...Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage! Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.

Ephesians 5:16 says to redeem the time because the days are evil.  Time slips away much faster than we think and the snowball effect of time lost becomes so big we feel like we can't reverse the trend.  But you can react now and make the most of the time you have at your disposal.  Plan some special days with your children and see how much they blossom when you take time for them alone.

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren