Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin picking. It seems like I just finished putting away my bathing suit from summer vacation and already I’m seeing ads for fall—sweaters, jeans, and pumpkin everything. Before we know it, we will be seeing advertisements for Christmas shopping. Where is the time going?
Time. The concept of time is something we grasp as we mature and enter adulthood. When we are young children, we learn time through our activities—bedtime, bath time, lunchtime, etc. As we grow up, our responsibilities like class schedules and extracurricular activity calendars dictate how we spend our time. The common phrase, “I don’t have time for that,” or the popular meme, “Ain’t nobody got time for that,” are indicative of a busy culture. The question is, however, how can we utilize the time in our busy lives so that we enjoy life?
My wife and I celebrated our daughter’s first birthday recently. It seems that with each birthday, the common thought in our house is, “This year flew by!” Each year seems to go by faster and faster as our lives fill up with more and more, which is just a natural progression in life. We all are involved with many different things that demand our attention; they demand our time.
When we got married, my wife and I had to make sure we made time for one another, by carving out a few hours here and there for movies or dinners. As I look back now, it was so easy! When we moved from our apartment into our house three years ago, I had to dedicate time to landscaping and home repairs. When my wife and I both started new jobs, we gained more responsibilities—and as we succeed in those jobs, we will be handed more responsibility (and hopefully more compensation to go along with that). As we added children to our family, we had to dedicate time, a lot of time, to caring for and nurturing our children—getting ready for school or Mass, changing diapers, extra grocery shopping, preparing meals for daycare, cleaning up toys, and changing more diapers. Our time is quickly being consumed by more and more.
With all that is going on in my family’s lives, and with the certainty that the demand for our time will increase as our children grow—sporting events, school concerts, dance recitals, science projects, graduations—I am constantly reminded to enjoy the moment. This is usually something all of us hear and deep down we believe to be true. We know that each moment is a gift that shouldn’t be taken for granted, but life gets busy sometimes; it’s not always easy to do.
When my son is not the best listener during Mass or when he refuses to use the potty—it is hard to enjoy those moments. When my wife and I have a strong disagreement or when all of the difficult things of “being an adult” seem to happen at once (the hot water heater breaks, bills pile up, we need a new car, work becomes stressful, etc.), I don’t enjoy those moments. In fact, it probably isn’t possible to enjoy those moments, but that shouldn’t distract us from the things we should enjoy. Nor should our reactions to those moments negatively take up more time by being angry, arguing, or making things miserable.
The truth is, my daughter will not always be a one year old and learning to walk. She won’t always reach up for me to hold her. There will come a day when I will wait up worrying about her as she is out with her friends. My son will not always kiss me good night and say, “I love you, Daddy.” There will come a day when he leaves the house to become his own man. My wife and I won’t always be healthy and able to go for walks as a family and enjoy the beach in the summertime. So, with full knowledge of that, I’m trying to accept the fact of time. I try to live these moments with gratitude and joy, regardless of the kind of day I had at work or what the world around me is doing.
All of these moments, both good and bad, are moments of time in which God can speak to our hearts. Our time, our life, is a gift. We do not know the day nor the hour—the time—that the Lord will call us home. We do not know what He has in store for us each day, but we can find His joy in the time we have.
