Taking Time

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (I John 3:1). To lavish is to give freely, profusely, extravagantly, and abundantly. He doesn't give us everything we want when we want it. No father wants spoiled children. Rather, He gives us everything we need to become well-behaved children who bear His name well.

A good friend shared this devotion with me today. And it is sooo true, we were talking about something like this yesterday at the boys school (about how kids today have so many gadgets and that there is lack of creativity and don't know how to "play") One of the staff said her grandkids came to visit their retreat and that she had army men and the boys didn't even know how to set them up. She said she had to get down on the floor and set them up because they didn't know how to "play". I shared how our kids do not watch TV in our house (except for news/weather) and they get to watch movies on special nights and weekends. Many of my kids friends look at us with quizical eyebrowed looks and their first reply is usually "do you not OWN any televisions in your house". And when I tell them that yes we do, we just don't watch them. That usually follows with well what do we do? And that answer is that we "play".

I often worry if I am holding my children back by withholding technology from them. I see kids today as young as 4 able to use a cellphone, and play games on a iphone. My kids do not know what an MP3 player even is, which now they are probably obsolete with the ipad nano and 3G/4G phones. We thought the desktop computer we got them for their 5th birthday would be a great segway into technology and loaded it with educational games. These days it would be considered a relic in computer standards. We finally got wireless interenet this year so that they could access their school websites for educational games, because the boys wanted to get to a place in their JumpStart games that was only accessbile via internet. The boys just "had to have it" so when we got it, we thought they would be begging us to play it. Not so much...which is what I hear some parents say that they spend all this money on video games and then the kids either a) spend little time playing them b) they spend too much time playing it or c) they use the video game playing time as a reward/punishment. My kids have asked for a DSi for the first time last Christmas, we asked them why did they want it. They said they wanted to be able to play a Military game that they saw a friend play over the summer. We discussed that the game was made for older children and that we could get a DSi but they'd have to wait until they were older to get that game. They quickly changed their minds and they no longer wanted the DSi. They will sit and watch someone playing a DSi but still show little interest in owning one (I am sure that time will come when that changes). They loved playing the Kinects no remote control video bowling and boxing at their Memaw and PawPaws and have played Wii Resort Sports with our neighbor, but for short amounts of time compared to playing with their toys or other board games.

Recently, we went to an Odyssey of the mind competition and it was an all day excursion. Many kids had Dsi's, parents had their multipurpose cell phones, some had ipads, and we brought board games. We had Connect Four, Trouble, and Toy Story Yahtzee....and it amazed me how many wanted to play the board games over the gadgets. What was even more amazing was how many had never played them before or had forgotten how to play them! What fun it was to sit and watch the kids teach each other the rules and sit and play these 'relic' games that didn't have fancy buttons, gadgets, bells or whistles. Just good old fashioned fun.

Which got me to thinking, that all of this applies to our lives as well...with so much "stuff" do we really see what is important. Do we get so busy and distracted that we forget relish all the little things that happen everyday? It also reminds me of my post from yesterday, the gift of an ordinary day. Kids will not always remember the gifts we've gotten them over the years, but they will remember how we made them feel. How true it is for adults as well. It is easy to lose sight on what is important in our day to day routines. So today, take a time out, to see the little things....take the time not only to "play" but to"pray"!