Friday, April 8, 2011

These days don't last forever

I absolutely love Dave Ramsey! Love the show, love the advice and I especially love Debt Free Fridays! In case you aren't a listener, this is where people can call in and scream,"WE"RE DEBT FREE!!" for all the nation to hear. It's one of my simple joys listening to the show on the way to track Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The older kids are usually chatting and I take the opportunity to tune them out and tune in. This week has been frustratingly different. Zion has been more than chatty. Reading me random facts, talking on and on about Lord only knows what. the boys a talker!! I'm sure I don't know where he got it from. Must be the father's side of the family cuz you know my family is quiet. I couldn't even type that with a straight face!! Buhahaha!! 
Today I really wanted to listen, really really wanted to hear the victories people have won in the name of credit slashing. He kept on with the random facts from a National Geographic book. "Hey mom, did you know Alaska and Russia are only 2 miles apart? Hey mom did you know a frog glows when it eats a lightening bug? Hey mom, hey mom, HEY MOM!!!!". He wasn't shouting, it just felt like it. 
I gently raised the volume on the radio trying to give him a hint. At 9 he doesn't use the sense God gave him. Then it hit me... This moment is fleeting. This boy will be grown and out of my house in less than 9 years. This funny, chatty, mirror image of myself is not going to be with me forever. God says that children are a blessing from Him. A blessing, not an annoyance, not a bother but a blessing.  As we drove home listening to the facts I thought of how so much of parenting is a die to yourself kind of deal. I love listening to the radio because it gives me a chance to not think about what's going on around me for just a few minutes. I had been thinking I just need a moment for myself. Me me me. Not kids chattering. Me and Dave. There will be a day when I long for random facts to be thrown at me. If Zion has his way he will be in the Army far away from Texas. I'm quite sure then I will wish I had another moment of chatter. 
I listened to his facts and trivia the rest of the way home, trying not to cry at the thought of him being a grown man someday. I thought of how few the years were that we had left with our 4 people. Even Jonah, 15 years til college. That's a blip on the screen of life. The moments will still come that I wish for some quiet. My hope and prayer is that I will remind myself that the moment will come too quick that I wish for some loud chatter in my quiet and clean car. Yes, I long for a clean car too. :-) 

2 comments:

  1. Ditto to everything you said! A few months ago, I was really hit with the fact that I was just floating through life with my girls. I've been really trying to be intentional, but it's exhaustng! And it's the little things--like radio programs or trying to read a book--that make me want to lose it. There are also those moments when I KNOW I'm doing the right thing, but they are few and far between. Will pray for you--that those refreshing moments show themselves daily and that Marck surprises you by cleaning your car. :)

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  2. Taylor is the same kid, loves to talk, and she has the gift of saying the same thing, but 50 different ways. She loves to read out of joke books to me, and they're just NOT funny, so I have to muster up my fake laugh.
    But agreed, they'll be gone before you know it, great post!

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