Partners in Parenting

More Time!”

Our Christmas Break was extended this year due to the snow and cold here in SE Michigan.  I don’t know for sure what the kids in your house were wishing for on Sunday, January 5, 2014, but mine were basically begging for a snow day (or two).  They just didn’t want to end their vacation.  They were overjoyed to get the word that they had more time for Christmas Break with school being cancelled for both Monday and Tuesday.  Ah, it gets better…on Tuesday the news that there will be no school on Wednesday either.  More time! 

“Dad, c’mon!  Why even bother going back this week with only two days left, and it is still pretty cold,” said one of my children on Wednesday.  They were bargaining for more time.  Parents may have been ready for school to start again, but the students, for the most part, wanted more time to relax at home.

I once read that a child knows very well how to spell the word LOVE.  It is easy to spell for all of us adults, right – L-O-V-E. Well, not quite so for a child.  Children tend to “spell” love like this – T-I-M-E.

As you begin a new year, I pray that your family would be blessed with the conviction to find more time to “just be together.”  Even as children get older and become teenagers, they still benefit greatly from more time with their family.  Someday, our kids will be off to college, married, and on with their own life where more time really gets hard to come by. 

Jesus even reminded his disciples of the reality that heaven is coming for all of us, but we really don’t know when.  He [Jesus] said to them:  “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”  Acts 1:7  But never forget that eventually, we will all spend eternity with Him in heaven where we will definitely have more time than our minds can even fathom.  We can understand time on earth, but not in eternity where there will always be more time!

Family Discussion Points!

Do you really want more time together as a family.  Do you or not?  Give everyone a chance to share.  Why or why not?

Why would a child spell “love” in this way (T-I-M-E)?

Everyone take your best shot at describing eternity.  “It is like…” and go from there to see what you can come up with as a description.