I want to encourage you today to be present with your family. I’m a mom of three, I homeschool, I work part-time from home, my husband works from home, and I’m a ministry leader. We have a lot going on and I really, I really want to just remind myself and anyone else here, if you’re a parent, your children are watching and they long to spend time with you.
You know, we are a picture of how the Father feels about us, and so we need to be present with our families and that can just look so practical. Like, I will write out a menu for the week and what I want my work week to look like, so that I can make sure that my time is spent wisely, so that my children know that I am for them, so that my children know that there’s time with mom, there’s time with dad, that we’re going to enjoy meals together, that I can sit down and I can listen to the stories that my kids have about what they did during the day, and about what they long for and what they desire.
So, don’t save being present for the holidays. Don’t save being present just for birthdays or special occasions, but be present all the time. You’re going to reap a reward in your children as they grow, because they do grow really quickly. It does go by really fast, and I want to collect all those memories and know that I didn’t waste anything.
But I also want to say this, for those of you, you might be a single mom or a single dad, or maybe just in a season of life where it’s busy and there’s a lot of things pulling on you, and you really can’t help but to go in all those directions. I just want to pray peace over you right now. I want to pray for your children to know that you love them, that they would grow, just knowing that mom or dad, or even there’s caregivers, that if you’re having a hard time, that the children would know that you love them. And I just want you to know that God hears your prayers for your kids.
And so, Father, I just thank you that you’re such a good Father. I pray that you would help us to create schedules. Holy Spirit, work with us so that we can move, we can flow from season to season with you and with our kids, and watch them grow and flourish. God, I pray that you would help us to manage our time well, and Lord, that you would redeem the time that we feel has been lost. In Jesus’ name, amen.