Quality Time

Don't you just love family. I sincerely do love my family. However, being in the military has really decreased the amount of time that we get to spend with our loved ones. It's usually reduced to the annual trip at either Thanksgiving or Christmas and then it's right back to Uncle Sam. I am not bitter about this because the Lord has taught me many valuable lessons. One of which being learning to deal with distance. My wife and I have come to terms with the fact that we can, have' and will spend long periods of time away from each other. Through each deployment and TDY (temporary duty for those who don't speak military:-), we have learned to cherish the time that we do have together and to make it count. We learned it's all about quality time not quantity time. This is also applies to our "families" back home. This was hard for me to grasp during our first few years in the service because I didn't understand this concept. It wasn't until I heard a message preached by Dr. James Dobson one night while jogging that I began to understand. I had really been pressed about what to do about my son Isaiah and my role as a father to him. See, I was about to begin some pretty intense training that was really going to be and continues to be very time consuming and I felt that I would be "robbing" him of a father figure in the home. I had been praying about it and the Lord answered it in this message. When he was a young boy, Dr. Dobson's father was a pretty successful evangelist and was continually called to be on the road for long periods of time. Well' it wasn't too long until little James' conduct began to reflect his absence. Well a long story made short, Dr. Dobsons father came off of the "evangelist trail" to be in the life of his son. Dr. Dobson said this "quality time" with his father was very influential in his life. If you look in Proverbs you will see the term "My son" over and over. Solomon was the wisest man in the Bible and it wasn't by an accident that it happened. Someone had a great influence in his life and taught him by both word and example. I think it was his daddy, King David (a man after God's own heart). Proverbs is full of lessons that we too can learn from our Daddy. Now as for me, I don't really have the leniency to just shift gears and spend enormous amounts of time at home with my children, but what I can do is change the amount of quality time I spend with them. For example, the other day Rachels' electric wind blow'n beautification apparatus machine died (hair dryer:-)) so I grabbed a screwdriver and Isaiah and let him rip it apart. He got to utilize his skills of destruction for the sake of higher learning heehee. He had a ball and I had his undivided attention teaching him about every part of the thing. It only took about ten minutes start to finish but when we were finished I asked him: "Isaiah who made this?" His reply: "uhh somebody" I said what would you think if I told you God made this? WHAT!! It was then I had his attention and explained to him the Bible verse John 1:3 "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made" I explained that man mearly put the elements together that He gave us. BAMM!!! Quality time in under 15 minutes. I challenge you today to spend "quality" time in the lives of those that you love. Who knows you might have a Solomon on your hands. Thanks daddy.

P.S. Sorry dad I never got that brand new lawnmower back together that I tore apart back in 1988:-))

Love From THEWAYWARDSONCAMEHOME