I sat on the couch at the end of a long day. Having just put the baby to sleep I tried to relax by scrolling mindlessly through Facebook, but I wasn’t feeling it. I closed the app, turned off my phone, and turned my attention to the chatter of my daughters in the living room floor.
“Hi, I’m sorry I couldn’t come to your party today,” my four year old chirped into a pink, plastic play phone.
“It’s ok,” my seven year old spoke in a disquised, voice attempting to sound much older. “You can come over now.”
“Ok,” her younger sister chimed, making the phone hangup sound with her mouth, and then starting her imaginary car.
I watched as their pretend plot continued, my eldest talking into a busted baby monitor. I smiled with glee as I watched them happily play together, and my heart swelled with pride that they were mine. So precious, so small, so adorable, so innocent, so perfect. Well, not all the time, but pretty much. At that moment, anyway, they seemed to be without fault, and I could have watched them play like that for hours.
Can time stand still?
It seems that it does just the opposite. It zooms by, it crashes over you, it tries to control you, and it passes in an instant. It makes you hate it, chase it, and somehow miss the wonderful things in it. You spend so much effort trying to create more of it that you miss a lot of the action of enjoying it. The day ends and if you’re lucky you’re not so exhausted that you miss how wonderful all the little things are that make up your day, that make up how you spend your time.
Time doesn’t stand still. But maybe you can still your heart to enjoy the time before it passes.
As I continued to watch them play, with a huge grin plastered on my face, my eldest daughter looked up and smiled. I could tell it made her happy to catch me watching her. She came over quickly and climbed into my lap. Then her sister followed suit. With one girl in each arm I beamed. This. This was what made life so grand, and it seemed like at that moment as I smelled their hair, kissed their heads, and soaked in their musical laughter, at that moment time almost stood still. Even if just for a moment.
Sandra Smith says
Time is the most precious and wanted commodity, high five.
Dave says
No wonder we’re told in scripture that this life is like a vapor! With three great grands and another on the way I think, how can this be? My two little girls grew up in the blink of an eye & it seems I didn’t get to spend hardly any time with them as little girls! I blame myself often & I deserve some of the blame! All of a sudden two dudes came along and I was in a sense out of their lives! Two dudes that didn’t seem to care anything about me and just took my little girls away! To this father, it seemed cruel! Time swept my little girls away! Enjoy your little girls more!! We enjoy the cute little ones added to our family and I thank God for beautiful great grandkids but I still want to spend more time with “my” little girls! Time took that chance away! But thank God they are okay today!