Friday... Again

They waved goodbye to our beloved piano teacher and ran off in various directions. One ran toward me to help with dinner, two ran to build a fort and one to the nursery to straighten the vegetable seedlings table. They just waved goodbye and now it's Friday again. My mind cannot fathom how the weeks fly by. In each moment, the hard ones, minutes drag on. But, as I invite Mrs. A into our living room once again, and she settles at the piano with her music-designed teacher bag, I marvel as time slips through my fingers like the keys under their little hands.

My children clamour to make their teacher a cup of tea and to slip a cookie onto a saucer. I take mental inventory of the past week and note that not all my list items were crossed off. Did I even accomplish any goals I had set out for the kids, for myself? I silently prayed for mercy, although I know it's not my perfection God requires, but my time.

 

 

Once again, June arrives and recital songbooks are tucked under arms as we eagerly find seats in the church hall. Oliver is Mrs. A's youngest of 30 or so, students, so he takes the bench with her first. As usual, our boy is a ham for the audience. It happens to be Daddy's birthday, so he plays, "We Wish You A Happy Birthday" while we all hum. Emily takes her turn and sings both songs into a microphone as she plays, the second being, "Amazing Grace". Molly plays well after much practice and not being sure she even likes the song anymore :) Meg plays "Awesome God" and it flows beautifully. We hug Mrs. A farewell for the summer and place a period at the end of a school year's worth of lessons. I feel as if I am merely weeks removed from the last time I was in this place on recital day. It is another reminder of how time races on.  

 

 

 

 

 

There is an urgency within me to use well every minute I've been gifted. But, somehow, the clock ticks while I'm forgetting this goal or wasting my time on things that are not of eternal value. It's not that what I'm doing is wrong, it just may be a little off-centre from where God desires me to be. I tend to take items onto my list that are not meant to be there and they end up gobbling precious hours. I must give God my time in order to be fruitful or my attempts to live well will be futile. What does that look like? He let's me know when I'm truly seeking Him (Proverbs 2,3). When I do this, Friday's return won't be woeful, but satisfying as He directs my weekly paths.

 

Thank you, Mrs. Anger for teaching my children so very lovingly.

The Maker Of Time

I have the photos of toboggan rides and snow angel making. I have the ones that remind us where we've been and the activities there. I have all the captured memories you'd ever want of our travels and moments, but today I want to bottle their faces. I want to trace every edge and smooth line, every eyelash and lip. I don't ever want to forget how they are today... who they are today. I take pictures because it helps me remember.

It's this little-ness that I despise time for stealing from me and yet the big-ness is becoming a gift I am yearning to open, as well. It's the divide that canyons their helpless, precious dependence and their growing up, but I'm learning to let go and let time have it's way. For the Maker of time desires to open my eyes to new joys with each of these growing-up milestones we hang our invisible trophies on. When did I begin to see time as a thief instead of a blessing within His Story?

And so, I drink in their childhood, their faces, their grins, their quirky sayings that will undoubtedly change. I trade my sorrow of their growing for the grateful thrill in gazing on their movement toward His design for them... in His time.

Trapped In Time

Are you waiting for something? Have you heard and read so many times to wait patiently, that God's timing is perfect? Sometimes it's so difficult to believe, isn't it? That He hasn't forgotten you? That He really is working out all things for your good? Try to imagine it this way, God transcends time. He is not governed by it. The end is as clear to Him as the beginning. He reads each moment as a whole and not as segments or a succession of time slots, as we do. He is and He always was. Your life to Him is one moment and yet He's to intimately involved with you every second. This is so hard for us to fathom but, since He is not bound by time, nor by "hindsight", your prayer is as much a part of your future as it is your past. He knows what you need and He's already provided it in the future. We wish we could see it all, as He does, but what we can do is rest in knowing that the prayer is already answered. Our best is already up ahead of us; we are trapped in time. Praise God that His love has already saved and provided for our future. Rest in this today.

Signs of Autumn

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)