Living in the moment

My friend Erin posted this passage on her blog, so I hope she doesn't mind that I copied it from her. It really struck a chord within me because I tend to be a "worker bee" at home scurrying around from room to room picking up toys, folding laundry, doing dishes, etc. that I don't really live in the moment with my precious children, even if they are in the same room with me!

"Am I Really There?
When my children were young, I had a conversation with a gracious Christian woman whose children were nearly grown. She commented, 'Linda, you teach seminars, speak, and so forth. My you must be out of your home a great deal of the time.

'I piously replied, 'No, I only allow myself two mornings a week out of my home. I'm home with my children the majority of the time.'

The dear woman sighed and said, 'I could have said that too, when I was your age. But, you know, if I had it to do over again, I'd do it so differently.

I was in my home all right, but I wasn't really there! I was on the phone planning a luncheon, organizing the Sunday school program or a tennis tournament. And when my children came into the room, I'd shove cookies in their hands and tell them Mommy was busy.

'Oh, Lord, I thought, I've given a few cookies!God used this discussion to challenge me to evaluate my time with my children. Was I really there - available for their needs? Or was I preoccupied with other things in order to avoid the pressure and responsibility of small children?

It was a sobering reflection. Even the tastiest cookie is no substitute for time and attention."

Taken from Creative Counterpart by Linda Dillow