Stealing Seconds

So I recently mentioned that our oldest son started school. Y’ALL. I was totally unprepared for the added STUFF Pre-K would bring into our lives. It is like a whole thing. I am super grateful that our little school provides so much enrichment for the kids, but I swear to goodness I have been more stressed over projects for Pre-K than I was through entire semesters in college.

But there are benefits. It is a whole new world. Friends, learning, stories, the lunchroom, the playground. There are endless “guess what’s” at the end of the day, and I just love that. I love the joy of his little face seeing me walk into the gym and sprinting full speed across and hugging me like he hasn’t seen me in a week… and in front of the whole school! (I’m going to milk that one as long as I can…) I love getting reports like I got yesterday–when his precious teacher looked at me and said, “He is such a joy. He makes me smile every day.” Love that. She and I visited for a few minutes, and as I was walking away, she whispered sweetly, “He told me he got to sleep with you last night. He was beaming because it was such a special treat to sleep with Momma.”

As I walked away, with his little four year-old hands clutched around my arm, I smiled to myself. In reality, he had come downstairs at around 5:20, and got to lay with me for about 20 minutes until it was time for us to wake up. But in his little mind, that was a whole night’s worth of special.

This week has marked tremendous loss in the world around me. People I have known both directly and indirectly, at all stages of life– a mother’s unborn baby, a young father and precious mother gone too soon, a wife at the end of a long road of illness, and the remembrance of my own dad’s birthday who would have been 52 yesterday and has been gone for far too long. Such painful loss for so many.

Hearing that my son treasured those 20 minutes as if it were a whole night gave me such tremendous perspective. Oh, to cherish every single moment we have with those we love. To soak in those sweet moments of goodness. To make each and every second count not knowing what could be our last.

Seconds. Every single second we have is so tremendously valuable. We allow those seconds to be consumed with meaningless commotion in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. All too soon, those seconds turn to minutes, those minutes to days, and those days to a lifetime. Don’t allow your seconds to be stolen in the frustration or busyness of life. Steal your seconds. Make them count. And cherish every single moment…