Take a moment today and stop.
Stop racing around, doing all those really important things that you need to do and just stop. Sit on a chair, gather up your little ones and just be. Enjoy them. Right now.
I know you’ve got other things to do. I do to. We all do. Our to-do lists are long, but our time with these kids is not. At least not in the scheme of an entire life.
I tend to be a runner. A sprinter. Moving from thing to thing to thing and always telling them to just wait. Then sometimes life knocks just a wee bit of sense in my busy persona and I start to see how few times I simply sit with my children and enjoy them.
Yes, enjoy them.
Not think about all that needs to change, or how their room is a mess, or what we’re going to make for dinner, or that they’re still in their pajamas. I’m talking about taking your brain off the fast-track schedule and sitting with them and being grateful for who they are and that they are in your life. If you’re worried about time, set a timer — and devote the time you set to just being thankful for them and to be with them.
It’s easy to live forgetting.
I know I have. I tend to pray for strength for the day, but forget to say thanks for even having the day with them. You know that phase stop and smell the roses? That’s what I’m telling you, telling myself to actually do. I talk about the roses, I talk about the blessings of parenthood, but today I’m reminded to actually stop. And see. And be grateful.
Go. Set your timer. And enjoy your children right now.
Smell the roses in life.
I know I need to.