Family
Invest in your Children
Politician: "And
so my dedicated campaign workers, I want to thank you for your
efforts and I want you to know I am actually glad I lost this race
because what I really wanted all along was to spend more time with
my family."
Crowd cheering
Defeated politicians aren't
the only ones who talk about their plans to spend more time with the
family. A great majority of Christian fathers today will readily
admit they do not spend enough time with their children. Yet we
seldom make the changes we need. If we're
serious about producing children of character who will become
fruitful workers in God's
Kingdom, spending more time with our children has to become more
than theory. Make a commitment right now to your children. Set a
date for a meal at a restaurant, a fishing trip or a walk through
the park. Don't
let anything short of an emergency deter you from that
commitment. Until your actions match your words, you will be no
more convincing than our defeated friend. Start your campaign right
now to redeem the time.
A Functional Kitchen
Did you hear about the dad who was
left in charge of the family while his wife was in the hospital? He
told the children they couldn't
have any Kool-aid because he couldn't
figure out how to get a quart of water into that tiny little
package.
The dad lacked some basic kitchen
skills. Here's
two ideas for improving your kitchen:
1. Look at how your kitchen is
arranged. Are the things you use often in the most accessible
locations? For example, There should be at least two sets of salt
and pepper shakers, one for the stove to use while cooking and
another in the dining area for use while eating. Remember, larger
shakers don't
have to be filled as often.
2. If you have young children, put at
least some glasses and silverware low enough that they can get it
themselves. Not only does it relieve you from getting their spoons
and drinks, but children as young as 3 and 4 years old can sort
silverware from the dishwasher and put cups away if they can reach
them.
Keeping your kitchen functional is a
way to redeem the time.
Four Seasons
Someone made the observation that just
as there are four seasons of the year, so there are four seasons of
life.
First, we are children to our
parents. Then we become parents to our children. With the passing
of time we become parents to our parents. Finally we become
children to our children.
The striking thing about these seasons
is how quickly they pass, how rapidly we move from one season of
life to the next. James in Scripture says, "What
is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time
and then vanish away.” Which of life's
four seasons are you in today? Children of your parents, parents of
your children, parents to your parents, or children to your
children. Once we understand the brevity of life we have a powerful
motivation to redeem the time.
Learning to Walk
Remember when you taught your child to
walk? You were so excited, you gathered the grandparents in the
living room and everyone clapped and cheered as the little one took
those first baby steps from mommy’s arms to daddy’s arms.
Did you teach your child to walk by
focusing on his failures or focusing on his successes? No parent
teaches his child to walk by saying, “OK kid, you’ve got 12 chances
to get this thing right, and if you keep on falling down we’re
giving up on you.”
No, we learn by failing. That
principle holds true in all of life. Many people never experience
God’s best for their lives because they focus on failure. Failure
is an event. It is not a person. We can fail many times and not be
a failure. No one is a failure until they stop using their time to
accomplish the thing God wants them to do.
Consistently focusing on our goals,
while learning from our failures, is God’s method of redeeming the
time.
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards was a man greatly
used of God to bring revival during the 1700's. As an evangelist,
pastor, and writer, he created many powerful messages, including "Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God",
which is still remembered as one of the greatest sermons of all
time.
One of the keys to Edwards’ fruitful
life was a set of 33 personal commitments, or "resolutions"
as he called them, which he made to keep himself from straying from
God. Many of these resolutions focused on his use of time. One of
them read: “Resolved never to lose one moment of time; but to
improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.”
Another read: “Resolved never to do
anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour
of my life.”
We would be wise to follow Mr.
Edwards’ commitments if we want to be used of God and if we desire
to redeem the time.
Lasagna Noodles
Boy: “Mommy can we have lasagna
tonight?”
Girl: “Yea, I like lasagna!”
Mom: “No children. I like lasagna too
but it’s just too much work and takes too long to fix. I`ll fix hot
dogs again instead.”
Do you ever cook lasagna at home? If
so, you are probably like most cooks who spend time boiling the
lasagna noodles before putting them into the casserole pan.
Never again do you need to do this
totally unnecessary task. Instead, begin by placing sauce in the
bottom of the pan. Then place hard uncooked noodles in a layer on
top of the sauce. Cover them with sauce and continue layering.
Finally, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for an hour and 15
minutes. The noodles will naturally boil as they bake, eliminating
a time consuming activity. And that allows you to redeem the time.
Buy some Marbles
The older I get, the more I enjoy
Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with
being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not
having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday
morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward
the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the
morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday
morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand
you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.
I turned the dial up into the phone
portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday
morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding
chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the
kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He
was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand
marbles". I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to
say.
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're
busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you
have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe
a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to
make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's piano recital."
He continued, "Let me tell you something, Tom, that has helped me
keep a good perspective on my own priorities."
And that's when he began to explain
his theory of a thousand marbles. "You see, I sat down one day and
did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about
seventy‑five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but
on average, folks live about seventy‑five years. Now then, I
multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number
of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.
Now stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part." "It
took me until I was fifty‑five years old to think about all this in
any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over
twenty‑eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived
to be seventy‑five, I only had about a thousand of them left to
enjoy." "So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble
they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round‑up
1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large,
clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.
Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it
away." "I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused
more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like
watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your
priorities straight."
"Now let me tell you one last thing
before I sign‑off with you and take my lovely wife out for
breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the
container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have
been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is
a little more time." "It was nice to meet you Tom. I hope you
spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here
on the band. 75 year Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT,
good morning!" You could have heard a pin drop on the band when
this fellow signed off.
I guess he gave us all a lot to think
about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then
I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club
newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a
kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."
"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing
special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday
together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're
out? I need to buy some marbles."
Long Range Planning
It has been said that we tend to
overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, but we also tend to
underestimate what we can accomplish in 5 years.
Long range planning is a valuable
exercise for gaining control of our time. Long range goals give a
sense of purpose and direction to our lives. They let us know where
we're
going and allow us to plan how we'll
get there. Long range plans give vision and hope.
Ultimately the most important long
range plan is where we plan to spend eternity. God says it is
appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. Have
you made your plans for eternity yet? If not, you have never made
the most important decision of your life. Settling the question of
your eternal destiny is the most important way to redeem the time.