These days we’re all very busy. Sometimes I wonder where I find the time to put on fresh clothes each day (answer: some days I don’t). There’s a list of things that need to get done; the list seems never ending, there aren’t enough hours to cross everything off. There are forty fights to fight each day: our kids’ school & issues classmate squabbles, personal issues our children struggle with; political issues, work, health, family squabbles, neighbor squabbles…on and on and on. Just trying to decide what to make dinner for your family can exhaust you.
All of these things are important. Yet, there are some more important than others. It’s easy to lose perspective in the day-to-day wars, especially if you have teenagers. Especially if you have toddlers. Especially if you have a newborn, a pre-teen…at any age, let’s face it, it’s always crazy.
So how do we stay grounded, stay focused on "What’s Important Now (WIN)". I have to give Lou Holtz, the former coach of Notre Dame, credit for that one. WIN. Ultimately we want to win this parenting, love and life race. I once drove by a nearby church, and saw on the sign "What are you focusing on?". At the time I was focusing on the wrong things, I admit this. I wasn’t winning, I was struggling. So, over time, I stopped focusing on the wrong things, and life got more peaceful, more "right". I want to win. We all want to win.
It is my belief that the busier we are, the less we have time for the important things. I believe the most important "thing" is God. I admit I don’t spend enough time with Him, with his Son. I admit I’m not the best Christian I can be–I get angry, argumentative (I call it passionate, my "Italian Ire", but even so…), sometimes I pre-judge. Sometimes I yell at my kids, I can’t help it (blame the Italian Ire again). I also admit I really do try; try to keep my kids praying, faithful, educated in His word, try to be a good wife and mother. I try to be faithful, forgiving, loving. It’s not easy! That I know.
Yet, I admit, after we pray together we do feel closer, more relaxed. When we go to church together, I feel the stress melting off me–no matter how stressed I was walking in–and I find myself drawing closer to my children and my family. Issues that seemed mountainous before prayer seem smaller and manageable after. People I was annoyed with before earn my forgiveness and patience, simply by praying that I earn theirs; my children see this and hopefully apply it accordingly to their lives. When I read the Bible with my kids, we learn–as a by-product of reading about other biblical figures who struggled–how to handle day-to-day issues through God’s divine inspiration, and through Christ’s divine teachings.
I also know that teaching my children about our faith, about our Lord, about love and forgiveness, about scripture, may someday save them. This is a brutal world; already my children have had to deal with some tough issues on the block and in the schools. The world is changing every day, and our children need a strong guiding force to lead them through this tumultuous life. I know I need to take more time, I know this; yet, sometimes time gets funneled up inside the tornadoes of daily life. I don’t like it, it just happens.
I wish I could stop time once in a while, but you know–maybe that’s what Sunday’s are for. The Sabbath Day, to keep it Holy. God knows us, better than we know ourselves. God knows our children, better than we know them. God understands how crazy and busy life can get. I know that’s why He made keeping the Sabbath holy a commandment; we need a day; one day– to spend with our family, to read the Bible with our kids, to worship our Lord, a day to have a meal together, to reflect and relax and appreciate all that we are truly blessed with, even the little things. This is perhaps the most important element to winning, winning this race called parenting, called love, called life.
Each year we make new resolutions to exercise, slow down, make more money, reduce stress, lose weight, etc. These are all good resolutions. But I wonder how our lives would change, especially for us parents, if the number one commitment in our life was to teach our children about God and His Word. I suspect that many other issues in our lives that we would like to improve on– relationships with our kids, finances, stress, interpersonal relationships, those daily "wars" — would also improve, automatically, by drawing God deeper into our lives and our children’s lives. I wonder.
~slc
