Time....

Thoughts and tidbits for today.....I read a blog today about a lady and her 2 young children,  they were at a park when it started pouring down rain, as she was trying to gather everything up, and run to the car, both children were laughing hysterically at being jostled in their mothers arms and pelted with rain.   At that very moment she went from being completely frazzled to completely calm, standing as the rain soaked every part of their bodies, she dropped her stuff, placed the kids on the ground, and together they began laughing, and dancing in the rain. Some people thought she was crazy, but she realized at that very moment that this was a treasured moment. A moment that doesn't come around very often. A moment where she had a choice to take shelter from the storm, or enjoy the innocence of her children and rejoice in the rain. It made me think of how many missed opportunities have came across in my life. Moments I should have stopped and took the time, to just be in the moment. A moment in time when my children were small and it was the little things that brought joy to them. We get so wrapped up in raising our children according to what society tells us, keeping up with Mrs. Jones (super mom), keeping a perfect home, providing all the best materialistic items, and making sure our children can recite every president in order by the time they are in kindergarden, that we just forget to let them be kids.  I could not wait for each new transition, couldn't wait for them to crawl, walk, hold their own bottle, sleep through the night, buckle themselves in their car seats, go to school, clean up after them selves, and wash their own bodies. I was ready for them to grow up, and now that they are grown up, I feel sad, because those transitions, milestones, should have been seasons, exciting seasons, that I treasured and made time to enjoy every second. 

Many of you reading this have little one's and you feel exhausted by the end of the day. You feel you can never get your house work done, laundry, meals cooked, kids shuffled, etc. I would like to say one thing, your house will never be completely perfect, laundry will always pile up, chicken nuggets are ok, and they have the rest of their lives to be scheduled. So take time to read, color, play barbies/trucks, roll in the leaves, play in the rain, make snow angels, swing. Because it will be nights like this when the house is empty and quiet, no one to tuck in, that you would have wished you would have treasured, enjoyed every moment and made the most of the day by just being a mommy. The clock does not stop, time goes by too quickly, it is what you do with that time that is important. Make the most of the 24 hours God has given you with your family, you never know when the moments will end. In life storms come our way, will you seek shelter and hide, or will you open your eyes like the innocence of a child and rejoice in the moment in front of you?