Enjoying Each Day

by Victoria Duerstock

The passage of time is constant. It goes no faster or slower as each year goes by. Oddly though, we seem to feel as if the passage of time goes faster each year. Many times we find ourselves grasping for the heels of our babies as they walk across the graduation stage, take their first job, or toddle down the hallway. Each day that goes by, we feel the urge to try to freeze frame each moment before it passes. We mourn the loss of the past season, but sometimes can’t wait for the next one than the one we are presently in.

This sense of tension between loss and anticipation colors the days of our lives. Wanting to slow down and accelerate time both at the same time is the juxtaposition where we find ourselves as the days morph into months and even years. Each of us longs to drag out the time our children are at sweet stages, but speed up the process of the difficult days. 

We enjoy our babies when they are easy to manage, but we also long for the days when we can sleep through the night again. 

We love when the toddlers can start to do little things for themselves throughout the day, but can’t wait to get through the attitudes like “I do it myself” that inevitably come along with that new found independence.

Adolescence is no different – we send the babes off to school, or we begin their education in our homes with brand new pencils, notebooks and worksheets with great expectations only to end the year wondering how many more days do we have to endure? 

If we manage to survive the tension in all those days, we fast forward into high school, college, and marriage and family before our first blink. 

The impending empty nest seems to accelerate its pace the minute high school begins. 

So how do we hold on and live intentionally to make the days count? 

First we need to ask ourselves, “How do we want to end?”  In goal setting working backwards is helpful to be able to prioritize how we will handle our days when we have the end goal as our objective. 

Second we do just what the Bible tells us –

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

As we begin to enjoy the next season with our families this summer, I hope you’ll be encouraged to enjoy the days with your family, treasuring each moment and not wishing away the days or season in which you are currently in. I pray you'll have some sweet moments and memories this week with your family!