A day wasted?

In his book, The Effective Father, Gordon MacDonald wrote: "It is said of Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing.  The day was fixed in his mind, and he often reflected upon many things his father had taught him in the course of their fishing experience together.  After having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much later to check the journal that Boswell's father kept and determine what had been said about the fishing trip form the parental perspective.  Turning to that date, the reader found only one sentence entered: 'Gone fishing today with my son; a day wasted.'"

I'm currently on the downslope of the most busy season I've had in my life.  I have had the opportunity to see how much I can be involved in and just how severe my own limitations are.  I have noticed that, when push comes to shove, I will shove a person out of my way in order mark something off of my checklist.  It is something that I don't want to do, or even recognize that I'm doing.  God has patiently taught me that I am just one person and I can only do so many things well.  I can't possibly do everything that I would like to do.  I need to focus on not wasting any of my time.

In the midst of all this busyness my oldest son informs us on a Saturday that he has a project due Monday at school.  It's a project that he's had at least a month to work on.  I wanted to get upset with him because I was busy - stressed - tired - wound up - but I held it in.  (To my surprise & relief).  I wanted to rush him through it so that he could finish it quickly.  But I felt this conviction that we needed to use this opportunity to "make a memory."

He needed to do 3 things for this project.  First, he had to write a 30 second commercial script.  That was pretty fun.  Secondly, he had to draw a movie poster.  I think he did a good job.  I wanted to help make it better but realized that I'm not helping if I do it for him.  Thirdly, he had to make a movie trailer.

Awesome.  Mindy and I decided that we needed to have the whole family help out on this.  So we planned it for Sunday afternoon.  Sunday mornings are my favorite time of the week, but they are also the most exhausting for me.  By the time I get home around 12:30 or so - I'm pretty worthless.  However, we needed to do this Sunday.  So we loaded up the van with all 7 of us and drove out to a pirate ship playground out on the island...on a Sunday afternoon....around 2pm...in the height of season...  It was a slow drive.  It was completely worth it.

I think we got to make a memory.

God, please give me the wisdom and perspective to see just how valuable my time is with my children.  May I never see time spent with one of my children as time wasted.

God, please give me the wisdom and perspective to see just how valuable my time is with everyone.  May I never see time spent with one of your children as time wasted.

Oh, here's the video:


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