My older daughter recently turned eight years old. My younger daughter turned five this summer. I know that some mothers of older children will probably be rolling their eyes at my angst, but this has been a hard summer for me. Where has the time gone? The older girl was just born last week! And the younger girl just yesterday. I miss so much the cheerful, sunshiny three year old who thought she could change the world with her smile. (She did change my
world!) I miss the sweet nursing baby smiling at me with milk in her mouth. Where did they go?

Precious minutes. Priceless seconds. I just want to hang on to them for just a minute more! The bittersweet cry of every mother. “If they could just stay little ‘til their Carters™ wear out.” Realizing that I have today with my daughters, and that I’m not guaranteed any tomorrows makes me a much more patient and wise mother.

Valuing time is one of God’s goals for us. Moses understood that valuing time leads to wisdom.

For all our days have declined in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a sigh.
As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.
Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
—Psalm 90:9-12 (NASB)

For a while I’ve been mulling the terms worship and honor. I’ve come to understand that honoring God is a moment by moment decision. Each moment, I can choose whether to value the time and behave as God would have me, or I can choose to ignore the value of the moment and make a decision accordingly. I believe that God is honored when we value time and when we value what God has given us in that time.

How does this change the way I relate to my family? Well, starting with my husband, it means when he reaches out for me as I fly past him, that I don’t keep flying past. I stop and let him hold my hand or pull me to him. The dishes can just sit a moment longer. My husband is more important than the dirty dishes. Even better, on my way to the kitchen, I stop and massage his shoulders as he sits at the computer. I might even whisper a sweet something in his ear. The way I treat my husband can honor and worship God, or not.

For my daughters it means that I have a better perspective on messes or dawdling or childishness. It means I hold them just a moment longer, read them one more story, cheer them on one more time. It means I stop what I’m doing, turn and look at them, and give them my full attention. It means I smile when they come in the room.

For the million mundane tasks that need done, I need to choose to view each as an act of worship rather than something insignificant that eats my time. I need to choose to be thankful for the loads of laundry, because it means we have plenty of clothes, a washing machine, a dryer, and money for laundry soap. For each dirty dish, I need to be thankful for the food that dirtied it. And so on.

In our homeschool, we’ve been reading the Little House series. I read them as a child and probably watched every episode on TV. As an adult, I’m amazed at how they thrived on so little, working so hard to get that little. They had so little opportunity for joy, and yet they found it where they could, mostly in each other.

Although it’s in the context of the judgment, 2 Peter 3:8 reminds us how God views time: "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day."

It’s true that God values time. But it’s also true that God’s perspective on time is different than our perspective. For us, finite creatures that we are, time is linear and one directional. For God, who created it, time is not linear and obviously not one directional. I’ve been reading Heaven lately, by Randy Alcorn (see also www.EMP.org). It has challenged my thinking about Heaven and eternity like no other source ever has. This book has been amazing to read, and I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to know more about our eternal destination.

What is so hard about watching my daughters grow up? Each stage of their lives is so sweet, there are precious things about their personalities that I treasure, and I can’t hold on to them. My sin-cursed, imperfect brain just can’t remember them all. My digital camera can’t capture them all. Even if my scrapbooking were up to date (and it’s not!), I wouldn’t be able to save and savor them. A picture, or even a video, can’t contain the whole of their personalities, their sweetness, their delightfully quirky ways, their brilliant insights into their growing world. We live in an imperfect world, and we are imperfect creatures.

This book has helped me cope with the my-baby-is-growing-up anxiety that I’ve been feeling all summer and fall. Reading about Heaven has helped me develop and keep an eternal perspective through it all. The good news is this: we are destined for a perfect world! We are destined to exist in a world where things are not forgotten. We are destined for a world where I will be able to spend eternity with these delightful daughters of mine.

I’m not completely through the book yet, so I don’t know if Mr. Alcorn answers these questions, but I wonder if I’ll be able to look back on our life on this earth. I wonder if I’ll be able to look back and see my daughters growing with the clarity of a perfect mind (perfect, but still growing). I wonder if God will allow me to re-savor their butterfly kisses with the lavender bubble bath smell still on their skin. One thing I’m sure of, though. If He doesn’t allow me to re-savor their childhoods, He will give me something even better. And being Heaven, I’m sure that my daughters will smell even sweeter than lavender bubble bath. These thoughts have given me hope and endurance.

My daughters frequently ask me to tell them stories about when they were little. And I always comply. One day, my older daughter asked me if I missed when she was little, and I said yes. But I added that mothers have the special ability to see their children in all stages. For example, when I look at her new tooth coming in, I can see her very first tooth coming in at the same time. I can see the baby in the 8 year old. And I suppose I’ll be able to see the 8 year old in the 12 year old. And so on.

They are growing up so fast I can hardly stand it. My “baby” is now 5 and quickly pushing her way to 6. I know that sometime next week, the 8 year old will begin driving. And probably the week after that she’ll get married. I’m so glad that God has a different perspective on time than I do.

Challenge: Savor your children. Savor every moment you can. Mark them as priceless moments in eternity. Pray that your children will come to know and love Jesus at an early age. Teach your children daily to love Jesus. Store up treasures in Heaven, knowing that our Father will keep them safe for eternity.

Copyright © 2008 by Anni Welborne Share