The gift of time

This morning I dropped off my son at the home of his classmate Thea for her birthday party. Her parents were really organized and got the invitations out nearly 3 weeks ago, which is impressive. However, there is some German heritage in the family, so this might help explain the organization.

I packed my bag thinking that I would need to be there from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. However, they were so well organized that I didn't need to stay. So I suddenly had the gift of several hours to work with.

After picking up a pack of two 40 watt light bulbs for the office, I arrived home, dropped off a letter at the post office, then drove to Auchan. I ended up purchasing the Norton 2007 Internet Security program at Auchan and a cheap DVD player at Darty, as our DVD player has suddenly died. These were projects that would have needed gotten to, but ended up getting accomplished because of the exta gift of time.

Today was a reminder to me of what a gift time is. For the first time in my life, I feel that I can't just get up earlier and/or stay up later and get everything done. Perhaps this is a temporary feeling due to having 3 young children. However, I suspect that it's something that has just struck me later in life than some others because of my drivenness and high energy level.

Going to Thea's party was a gift of my son's to her, as well as a smaller one of me as well, since I had to give up some time to pick up and drop off my son. He had a great time and behaved well, according to her parents. I think that it helped build a stronger relationaship between our family and her family, as well as with 3 other of our son's classmates who were also present. As her mom noted, we tende to be rushing off at drop off and pick up times, so this provided a more relaxed time together.

I was able to give my wife the gift of time to attend a women's day retreat at our church this afternoon/evening. Anne and I helped watch the kids at home so she could go. From the look that she had on her face when she returned, it seemed like a great day for her.

We all have 24 hours a day. How and with whom we invest our day is often largely in our hands. Of course, soem of us have less freedom in this than others. We need God's wisdom in best managing our time and priorities.