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Do we value our Family Time?

Family time is something we all say we value, but few of us actually experience. Surveys suggest that most families rate time together as their number one priority. Those same surveys show that fathers spend only a few minutes a day with their children. In his book If I Were Starting My Family Again, John Drescher wrote about a study of 300 seventh and eighth-grade boys who kept detailed records of how much time their fathers spent with them over a two-week period. Most saw their father only at the dinner table. A number didn’t see their fathers for days at a time. The average time father and son were alone together was seven and one-half minutes a week. There are several excuses that we use to justify our lack of time together as families: We excuse ourselves by saying, "We don’t spend much time together, but our time is quality time." This makes me wonder what one minute of "quality time" per day might include. Perhaps you will agree with me that quality time cannot exist apart from quantities of time. Another argument we use is: "My kids are young. If I’m not around that much for the first few years, it won’t matter." This attitude fails to take into account the fact that many opportunities present themselves only once and only for a moment. A child is only two for one year. Toddlers do not remain toddlers for long. We must seize every opportunity to be together because none of us knows which moments are going to be locked forever into a child’s memory. And none of us knows which experiences will mark turning points in a child’s life. A third excuse is: "I’ll make it up to them later. There’s plenty of time. I’ll build my career now so that when they’re older we’ll have plenty of money to spend on activities we all enjoy." This argument is, in a word, foolishness. Who really believes that we’ll have more time in a few years than we have now? Busy lifestyles don’t change when we reach a certain age; they just become more deeply ingrained. We all have twenty-four hours in a day and what we do with those hours speaks volumes about what is important to us. If we have no time for our children while they are young, they very likely will have no time for us when we are old. We ought to make the most of each opportunity (Ephesians 5:16). Be a part of your children’s lives; make family time a priority. Schedule plenty of time together so quality experiences can happen. Your family is a gift to you from God. Don’t say, "I’ll make it up to you later." Spend time with your loved ones today. From http://guidance.gospelcom.net/family.htm

Scriptures: Ephesians 5:16

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