Giving Your Family Leftovers

Time may be the most increasingly scarce commodity in our lives: it's the original unrenewable resource. We're encouraged to maximize our time by maximizing productivity: doing as many things as possible, at once. Sometimes scheduling family time is the only way to make it happen, though usually it comes at the end of a long day, at a point when everyone feels drained.

What might happen if we looked at our time differently? Time with the people we love, no matter how scarce it may be, only gets more precious as it gets harder to find. What might feel like an obligation is really a celebration, of and with the people we love. Even if your time is scarce, isn't that all the more reason to value it, and to spend as much of it as you can with the most important people in your life?

Transcript

"Cat's in the Cradle" is a song about a busy father who keeps putting off being with his son until he finds the time. Years pass, and one day the son cannot find time for his father.

My friend, Dave, told me about the moment his wife confronted him about how he was spending his time. She said he was neglecting his family. And Dave decided to change. He says, even now, when he hears that song, “I feel again the heavy weight, the raw truth of giving my family the leftovers.”

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. Life is demanding, but the clock does not slow or stop. To give the most time to what is most precious—our close relationships—is the heartbeat and the power in the high calling of our daily work.

May the LORD bless you from Zion all the days of your life; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem, and may you live to see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel.

(Ps. 128:5-6)