Wednesday, August 26, 2009

It's About Time

My wife informed me the other day (as she was reading through her favorite blogs) that I hadn't written on mine for a month. I expected that.
I have an excuse. I have no time. Life is always busy. Our home is always busy. I continually say "If we can just make it through this week..." but then our very next week fills in so that one week hardly seems much different than the previous.

As I think on this fact, it strikes me that our children have no after-school activities. They don't play sports. They rarely watch television. They don't go to the mall and hang out with friends. They don't date (and they won't).
The fact is, it is not the social life of our children that keeps us busy. How is it that other families have the time to chauffeur their children to all of these things? Can it be that we are not as busy as we think? Do we have time to cram more things into our schedule? I doubt it.

I guess we could if we were willing to give some things up. What should we give up so that I have the time to blog more and my children have the time to play sports, go to the mall, watch television and date?

We could give up the rigid public school schedule. I say that tongue in cheek because we did that several years ago. What can we give up now?

We could give up schooling all together (It is tempting, but don't send the government my way, we won't do that). We could give up eating dinner at home as a family. We could give up our hobbies. We could give up maintaining our home. We could give up ministry. We could give up hospitality. We could give up Bible study and prayer.

Hobbies? Yes, I have hobbies. Good old red-blooded American hobbies. I hunt and fish. As a matter of fact, I have been fishing four times this summer. That is more fishing than I have done in any summer I can remember.
I am looking forward to hunting season. I hunt more than I fish. Fishing doesn't feed my family, but I am a more successful hunter. We eat venison all the time. We have been eating venison all year long. I could give that up this fall and get a job for a couple of months. That should provide enough money to buy a years worth of meat.
Oh, that wouldn't give me more time though. I would just be replacing one thing with another.

Now that I've taken the time to think about it, I don't think I'll give these things up. I've had the time to read 4 books, memorize a chapter of the Bible, mow the lawn, work 24 hours at the station, till the horse corral, eat with my family, work on Emily's computer, pay bills, sleep, spend some alone time with my wife, visit with my Father-in-law, spend time in prayer, wash the tractor, send out 12 emails and I am now sitting down for more Bible study (after I am done taking the time to write on this blog).
All of this since Monday morning. I suppose I have time.

Oh yes, blogging comes before sports, the mall, television and dating.

I guess it's time to teach the girls to blog.