Enjoy Your Children While You Still Can

So many people around me are having children or have young children.  A buddy and his wife just had their first today.  I talked with a friend due in November tonight and then saw another set of friends and their two little ones.  My wife and I have Joshua and one more on the way in February.  

This stage in my life is about having young children in the house, whether they're mine or my friends' kids or my nieces and nephews.

There are times when this seems like a pretty amazing stage of life and some when it's downright rotten.  Joshua has been what we call a crankybutt the last couple of days.  He's been angry and sad and frustrated for no apparent reason.  There are times, when he's screaming at me for no reason, that my mind races to think what I would be doing at that moment if I didn't have an angry child.  I remember times when we could decide to do something last minute and just do it.  We could stay out late.  We could go places without bringing half the house.  We could go to the bathroom... alone.  We didn't refer to ourselves in the third person.

But then I think about how darn cute he is.  I think about how he's given me my favorite name.. Dad.  I think about what a privilege it is to be the earthly father of a creation of God.  I think about how I get to model in that madness the love of the Heavenly Father to my child.

Parents of young children, we don't have that much time with them.  They grow up way too fast.

I recently saw a stat on Twitter that made me think about Joshua and this little one growing in Christine.  It said, "When your child graduates from high school, you will already have spent 93% of the time you will spend with them over the course of your life."

93% of my time with Joshua will be spent with him before high school is up.  Over 5% of that time is already gone.

We have to remind ourselves that children are a blessing from God.

"Children are a heritage form the LORD,

offspring a reward from Him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior

are children born in one's youth.

Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 125:3-5a

Parents, soak in this time with your children.  Take advantage of the time you have to point those arrows at a target.  Parent in ways that don't just teach our children morality, but that teach our children the Gospel.  Enjoy the good gift that God has given you and steward that gift well today.