It's 5:30. I'm up; though, I wish I wasn't.
I got to thinking about my time.
Last night, #5 walked into the room and asked if we would take he and the boys up to the elementary school to run around and play. It was getting dark, so we told him we couldn't at that time but could we do it tomorrow.
He was really mad because I was on my laptop and the Warden was sitting across the room on his iPad. We weren't looking at him. He felt that we were ignoring him. We'd answered his question, but yes, truly, our faces were elsewhere.
So, I got to thinking this morning, what am I doing?!
My children are only here for such a short time, and my time to interact with them is so short. Why am I squandering that?
I am up early to finish my computer tasks--blog, check email and facebook--early--before the kids are awake. While I've been sitting here, though, the words in the title of this post popped into my mind. I know where they came from--General Conference, but I didn't remember the whole message surrounding them, so I looked them up. Here's what I found (so fitting)....
"...Find some time for yourself to cultivate your gifts and interests. Pick one or two things that you would like to learn or do that will enrich your life, and make time for them. Water cannot be drawn from an empty well, and if you are not setting aside a little time for what replenishes you, you will have less and less to give to others, even to your children. Avoid any kind of substance abuse, mistakenly thinking that it will help you accomplish more. And don’t allow yourself to be caught up in the time-wasting, mind-numbing things like television soap operas or surfing the Internet. Turn to the Lord in faith, and you will know what to do and how to do it." (M. Russell Ballard. Daughters of God. April 2008).
I feel that what I do on the internet is good, but as with everything, it must be done in moderation. So, here's my plan....I am going to put my computer away once my children are up. It will stay away until the younger ones are down for a nap or they have gone to bed. My time needs to be completely theirs. I don't want to have any regrets after they're gone. I want to be able to say I was truly there for them.
For anyone interested, here's the rest of the talk. It's a great one:
5 comments:
This is awesome Julie. I totally agree! I have lots of room to improve on this. We have had tons of talks at church lately about not being idle (sp?). I get up early to workout and to check my cyber world every morning before my kids get up. Now I just need to work on the putting it away during their waking hours. Thanks for the post. : )
I recently read a talk by a general authority ( I can't remember who), reminding us that our kids are not hobbies. They are our reason for being here and we need to treat them accordingly. That was a wake up for me. Good thoughts!! :)
This is exactly what I needed to read this morning. To. The. T. Thanks so much Julie for sharing!
Amen. That was one of my fears about restarting my FB activity. It's so easy to numb the mind, yet we CAN do good by what we share. Thanks for the reminder.
I try to get on and off the computer by 9am each morning (I'm running late today), and then not get on it for more than a 5 min stretch again (usually to check email or repost on twitter for the afternoon crowd) until after 9pm. It's hard to stay away, though.
On the using the internet for good, thing, I'm re-focusing my "author" blog back to what I used to do for Parables & Ponderings. It may not sell more books, but it feels right. I love to teach, yes, but I love to uplift even more.
Thanks for uplifting us, Julie!
This is such a good post, Julie. Now that one of my chicks has left the nest I feel so strongly about the time we spend with them while they are here. I want to soak up every moment and never waste the time I have with them. Thanks for reminding us of this precious time:)
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