Time

“I watch the hands move grace on the clock face. I’m growing older. These children growing up. But time is not running out. This day is not a sieve, losing time. With each passing minute, each passing year, there’s this deepening awareness that I am filling time, gaining time. We stand on the brink of eternity.”

~Ann Voskamp

What do I do with my time? How do I spend it? Where do I let it slip carelessly through my fingers?

Time is a gift. Every day, every hour, every minute, and yes, even every second. I blinked and one child is married and now soon to be having her own child. I blinked again and another one will be graduating in a short year and looking at heading out to the mission field. I blinked yet once again and my 14 year old is a beautiful young woman and the little boys are every day closer to being called young men, and my 3 littlest are not quite so little. The baby of the bunch runs with the rest of the pack and everyday shows more and more independence.

It seems like just a couple of years ago Duane and I stood up at that alter, knees shaking and voices quivering as we said I do. This week it will be 20 years since my best friend and I took those vows. 2o years…with our 20th anniversary addition to arrive just a few weeks later. So much has happened during this time yet where does time go?

I would love to freeze time, to slow it down, and in some cases to even stop it. That’s not how the Lord made it to work. Time keeps ticking by and with it does this wonderful journey. I’m so grateful for that day I said “I do”. I’m so blessed to have watched my first born grow into the lovely woman, wife, and soon to be mama she has become. The gift of watching these loud, wonderful, crazy children God has seen fit by His grace to bless us with has been more than I ever dreamed or ever deserved. To stand side by side with my best friend and to age together is a blessing.

Would I love to slow time a bit…yes, just a little. I want to enjoy each day, each hour, each minute, and each second. To stop and smell the roses and the babies, to look deep into each child's eyes, to make certain that each and everyone of my family knows, truly truly knows just how much I love them and cherish them. To not be ruled by time but rather to rule time. This is my goal.

Time does not have to be our enemy. If I view time through God’s eyes then it is a friend. Time is a blessing. What am I going to do with the time given to me?

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8