"Soon she'll leave her crib forever..."

I've been listening to a lot of Andrew Osenga music lately. He's a singer/songwriter who plays with one of my favorite groups...Caedmon's Call. He's got this song called "Early in the Morning." One of the lines goes "My tiny baby's breathing deeper every day...soon she'll leave her crib forever." Time is an amazing concept. We're learning about it in second grade, but it's a lot bigger than just clocks and the ability to answer a question about elapsed time. Time is also something that we don't have a whole lot of. Soon, little Sarala will be out of her crib forever. Sad, yet awesome at the same time. That's the thing. We don't have a whole lot of time, and the time we do have is not guaranteed.

James 4 says And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money." You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that."

Wow! I love the last part of that. That is the attitude that I would love to have 0n a consistent basis. Also, I'd love this attitude to rub off onto Sarala's life and the people around us. Living for the moment with purpose is a little different than just livin' for the moment. When it comes to saying "Today-at the latest tomorrow..." I find myself procrastinating about a lot of things.

I've found that I get home and am generally pretty tired. Kids can wear you out, especially during a week where all we're doing is taking a big standardized test. I get home and sit down while Sarala plays. I find myself thinking "Just sit for awhile, Sarala will play later too..." but in reality, she's growing up and doing it quicker than I realize. She won't be little like she is for too much longer. Right now, everything is new and bright for her. I need to share in those moments by getting down on the floor with her...even if I'm still in my khakis. I am forcing myself to stop just sitting there and to get down and play. Her time is priceless. This applies to a lot of other areas in my life too. Relationships should hold a high place in my thoughts. I need to make sure I have time that I can give to people, but at the same time protect my time with my girls at home. Time. I've been talking about it all month in second grade math. Not at the "We're a wisp of fog" level ;), but God's been using all this talk about time to get my attention.