Too Busy?

How often have we told our children, in response to their curious questions or requests for something that interests them, "Not now", or "We'll do that another day",  or "We'll go there another time". Our reason? We're busy with other "more important things".

Now that school has started for me and I'm busy with the craziness of daily juggling, I find myself saying those words more often than I wish to, especially to Isaac.

I came across this poem today which somehow convicted me. The seemingly more important things such as housework, running errands, planning what to eat for dinner, or even my job, may not matter that much in twenty years time. But time well-spent with our children, learning, playing, discovering the world around them, will make a big difference in their lives twenty years down the road. May this poem speak to you as much as it does to me.

I Took His Hand and Followed

(by Mrs. Roy L. Peifer)

My dishes went unwashed today,

I didn't make the bed,

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring,

My little son and I...

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the summer sky

We waded in a crystal stream,

We wandered through a wood...

My kitchen wasn't swept today

But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade

And now my small son knows

How Mother Bunny hides her nest,

Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,

We climbed a sunlit hill...

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,

We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,

That I didn't brush the stairs,

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know, or even care.

But that I've helped my little boy

To noble manhood grow,

In twenty years, the whole wide world

May look and see and know.