"Sorry, we just don't have Time".

My wife and I took our youngest daughter and one of her girl friends to the Mall in Tupelo Sunday. You need to understand that we have to drive nearly for an hour to get there. And with today's rising gas prices, it is no small financial feat to do so. So, we had been there for a bit, walking around, when I needed to rest for a while. I sat down in front of some toys that children ride on. You know, trucks, "race cars", wagons, whatever. You put the quarters in and the child gets bounced around for a minute or two. Little did I know that I would experience a life event that would prompt my writing here.

 

       A little girl, no more than five years old walked among the toys, and asked her dad could she ride one. "No", her dad had said, "we just don't have the time". As  I heard those words, I thought of my oldest daughter, and to her two children. How many times did my wife or I tell that oldest girl, "no, we just don't have the time". We can never recover those times lost.We had the time, we just never understood how precious, and fleeting, our time with our children is. We should have made time. The man in the Mall should have made time. If he had to be somewhere important, then why was he in the mall in the first place?

 

        I want to say so many things about spending time with your children while they are small. But you KNOW all of the things I want to say! All of us do! We now try to make the time for our youngest girl. I spent two nights in a row sitting in a skating rink with my youngest...because she wanted me to. Our children crave our approval, and our love. I miss the times I spent with my oldest girl. The times I wanted to fish, and she wanted to swim and splash in the water, and scare away any fish within a two mile area! The kites she wanted to fly...the animals she would wag home, and try to save. All of that is gone now, just so many memories stored in my head.

         Make time for your children, not excuses. You can never go back...if you have grown children, then you know what I mean!