"Whoa, Nellie!"

As a mom with young children people always tell me, “Enjoy this time while they’re little, before you know it they’ll be grown.” I hear it all the time. I know this to be true too because I blinked and that squishy baby girl I was rocking to sleep I am now sending to the first grade in two weeks. I turned around and the sweet baby boy napping in the cradle is now climbing up the counters to get his own snack. So, I don’t disagree at all that time literally flies. The Bible tells us that our life is a vapor. Some translations say mist or morning fog. And in my experience there’s no joking in the Bible, if it’s spoken or promised in God’s Word then it’s already come to pass or will. So when the Spirit pressed it upon James to tell us that our “life is just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away,” he wasn’t kidding. So, the thing that I don’t quite get is when I’m told to, “enjoy it.” Why? Does that slow it down? Does it mean they won’t grow up? No, it doesn’t. See, the thing is, I do enjoy it and despite my best efforts my children are growing up before my very eyes. It almost makes me want to not enjoy it. Maybe if I didn’t enjoy them so much they wouldn’t grow up so fast. Totally kidding, I think. But, it seems to me the more I enjoy something, the faster it goes by.

The good things never last long enough. Our children grow too fast, the weekend is over before it starts, Christmas comes and goes like a whirlwind. Vacation, it’s like what? A week. My grandmother was 70 when she died, but the time I had with her wasn’t long enough. The moments where I get divine revelation with my Heavenly Father and I have such a close and personal encounter with Him that I can’t wait for the next time He invests in me like that…those times are so sporadic and I want more. I want to hear Him speak to me like that every day, it’s not enough. It never is. Maybe that’s what makes those “good” things SO good. We get just enough to leave us wanting more. Notice how the bad things and the hard times just linger on till what seems like forever? You don’t ever hear people say, “Hey, enjoy that trial. You’ll miss it when it’s gone.” Um, no I won’t. I grew from it (hopefully), I surely came closer to the Lord (thankfully), I learned some valuable lessons (more than likely), but I dang sure won’t miss the pain. Sayonara trial! Don’t let the door hit ya!

So, maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Our most fun times, best memories, favorite parts of our life, people we love the most, the growth of our children…Quick, a blink, a mist, a vapor. If things weren’t over before we knew it we might long for this world when we should long for eternity with Him. I get glimpses of His awesomeness in all my “good” things: watching my children learn, grow, play, sleep. Spending time with the ones I love most, feeling my toes in the sand, date nights with my husband, remembering the things I loved as a child, the people He put in my life solely as blessings, watching those relationships grow and seeing others grow closer to Him on a daily basis. I know His love for me partly because of the things He gives me that I love. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” Ephesians 1:3. So, enjoy it. I must. I do. But, that doesn’t slow it down. It does, however, ensure I don’t look back on it with regret.