We all have moments in life when, from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same again.
Can you think of some of those moments in your own life?
For me, I can remember this happening on multiple occasions:
- The day I trusted Christ as my Savior as a 12-year-old boy.
- The day my wife and I moved 14 hours away from home and said goodbye to our families.
- The day our first child was born.
- The day God helped me understand my true identity in Christ and break free from legalism’s grip (through this book, God Without Religion: Can it really be this simple?).
One more of those life-altering moments has been when each of our grown children has moved out of the house.
As Dr. Seuss once said, “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
These past few weeks, my attention has been captivated by the fact that our third child will be “moving out of the house” this fall as he leaves for college in just a few short months.
This has forced me to reckon with the reality that I have such limited time to do all “the things,” and to make all the investments I still want to make before time runs out.
Our lives bound by time always have a way of forcing us to acknowledge our limits and reflect on the things that really matter most.
Unfortunately, we often wait until time has run out, and we’re left with regrets, wishing we could go back and make changes.
Six months from now, I don’t want to look back with any regrets.
No matter the ages of your children, or their current season, the time you’ve been given with your family is limited too. What you do with the years, days, and minutes you have left matters.
I’m praying for you this week that your intentional parenting efforts, like arrows in the hand of a mighty man (Psalm 127:4), will touch eternity through the hearts of your children.
For the next generation,
Andrew
** For additional thoughts on this, you can read my recent article Love the People That God Gives You.
