Enjoy The Moment

“Hurry up,” the young mom told the little boy.

“Walk normal,” she added.

Sometimes taking two steps, sometimes three, the toddler was enjoying his walk down the stairs.  He was oblivious to his mother’s time table.  He was lost in his own little world.

I knew the mom’s frustration.

My son lives in his own world.  His personality is the exact opposite of mine.  I’m the oldest child, a Type A driven person.  My son is a dreamer.  He doesn’t get in a hurry.  Ambition is not in his vocabulary.  Through the years, I have said “hurry up” enough times to have it engraved on my tombstone.

Yet as my son turned 14 this year, I wanted to stop time.  Now that high school is looming in the fall, I want to go back in time.  This last year was an eye opener.  School went from being fun to work.

Our days were spent deciphering word problems, declining Latin nouns and discussing the symbolism in works of Literature.  When he wasn’t studying, he was busy practicing the trumpet or the piano.

It’s all good stuff.  He worked hard this year and learned how to study and balance his schedule.  But I missed our carefree days of going to museums on a whim or taking a nature walk because the weather was beautiful.

When our children are babies, we can’t wait until they can talk and tell us what they need.  When they can walk, we can’t wait until they can understand our instructions to stay out of the cabinets.   Then we can’t wait until they are potty trained or they can read by themselves.

As they grow and develop, we get so overwhelmed by their daily needs that we forget we won’t always have little ones hanging on to our legs consuming all of our time and energy.  All we can see is today.  But as Ecclesiastes chapter 3:1 says, there really is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun.

Just as there is a season of potty training, there is also a season for teaching ABCs.  Just as there is a time for teaching addition and subtraction, there is a time for discussing the symbolism in The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.  Each has its season.

The writer of Ecclesiastes also shares some beautiful advice, “So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:22)

The same is true for us as homeschool moms.

We need to enjoy the work we are doing, whether it is conjugating Latin verbs or spending the day at a museum or waiting on little ones to tie their shoes.  No matter how long our days seem, they really are numbered.  The time we have with our young children will be over in the blink of an eye.

Allow yourself to enjoy the moment my friends, whatever it may be or however long it may take.  Children really do grow up in the blink of an eye.  Learn to listen to your child’s inner time table and you may find you enjoy that crooked walk down the stairs.

Being an accountant by trade, a homeschooling mom by passion and a writer by calling, Alicia Stunkel knows the power of God’s grace in all situations.  She desires to share His message of love and mercy through the use of traditional and social media.  Currently, she can be found keeping it real on her blog, www.confessionsofasnowflake.com, where she’s not afraid to discuss tough issues of faith.