My daughter has always loved being read to and used to request the same books to be read over and over. Once, when she was two, she asked for me to read Vegetable Soup “just one more time.” I looked at the book that we both had memorized and said, “Tomorrow.” I had already read it three times that evening.

She looked at me with disappointment and then announced, “Tomorrow never comes.”

Thinking this was a commentary on bad parenting, I hesitated, trying to recall whether there were any instances I had promised to do things “tomorrow” without following through. I couldn’t think of any so asked, “What do you mean?”

“Every time I wake up, it’s today.”

When you are young, your whole life is in the future. All the really exciting things happen tomorrow, or next year or when you are bigger. Time cannot move fast enough. Then you grow up and have children. And time seems to fly by as they flash their first smiles, take their first steps, say “mama” for the first time. They grow up, racing into the future and leaving each day with a vision for the next. I just want to hold on a little longer–let time pass a little slower. But I frequently get caught up in the planning and worrying about what tomorrow will bring that I forget to enjoy each day as it comes.

As I plan activities and schedules for our days ahead, I need to remember to take time for the present, as well. I need to slow down and remember a little more often that every time I wake up, it is today. Not tomorrow, next week or next year. This time right now is the time that I have and I don’t want to miss it.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
–James 4:14

family, parenting, homeschooling, children, humor