Its that time of year again where baseball, softball, and whatever spring sport the High Schoolers are doing (this year its track) take over our lives and leave us gasping for breath. Add to that a Garage Sale, Moving our oldest home from College, Youth group activities, Michigan singers, and house hunting adventures, and you have perfect conditions for a perfect storm. There is no time for anything extra, and yet the “anything extra” is often the stuff that we need the most. I would file in the “anything extra” category things like, eating supper together, playing catch just for the fun of it, listening to the kids read a book that wasn’t assigned as homework, family movie night, family devotional time, and the list goes on.
The biggest struggle of being a parent is deciding what not to do, and what not to encourage your kids to do, so that the “anything extra’s” can stop being extra, and become normal. I fear that I have failed in this area of parenting. It seems that we are always running in and out and never sitting down, especially this time of year. This is a season of life…I know that. There will come a day when I will wish I had a ball game to go to or a track meet to attend, and my knowledge of this is what pushes me to be involved now. This season of life is hard but good, and I trust that God will give wisdom as I try to do better, and that my children will someday remember that we were there.
I will be busy, but I will also try to be wise, and encourage time for the “anything extra’s” that will help us to become a stronger family, and stronger followers of the one who gave us his very life for us.