The Sack Lunch

So here I am at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday evening...and I've decided to create a blog, having absolutely no idea what I am doing! The house is quiet, (which, in the last couple of weeks hasn't happened that much!) and here I sit, listening to nothing but one of our children, or maybe even my husband, snoring upstairs. I figure, what's it going to hurt right?

I've been reading daily on the blog that my daughter's mission team has been posting, both writings and pictures. What an amazing thing that technology has done, giving us the capability to communicate with people all over the world without actually "speaking" a word. I've perused the information about their journeys, both physical and spiritual, ever since Saturday evening last weekend. Simply amazing...Mexico seemed so far away last week, and yet all week I've felt a part of the energy that is in their group. Simply amazing.

...and I'm missing her. My daughter...my sidekick. The one who I battle with constantly, and yet someone that I love more than you could possibly imagine. The one who cannot close a door, drawer, or cabinet in the bathroom to save her life when she is finished. The one that will pour an entire glass of milk, take one drink, then leave the rest sit in the fridge for a day. The one who will come to me at 10:30 p.m. during the school year, softball season, and remind me that she needs the red jersey for tomorrow's game. That 16 year old female that I couldn't live without.

God has truly blessed me with children that make me better than I could ever be on my own. How does He do that? How does He know that we need them? How does He match us up so perfectly...us and our children. Maybe you don't feel that way about yours, but I sure do mine. God has managed to create a complete balance in my life by providing me the children that bring into my life what it might otherwise be lacking. (I'll write about my son another day...that's a whole other topic.) God is amazing in this way. Truly amazing.

I'm humbled as I sit here...I almost feel guilty. There are times when I literally treat this amazing gift He's given me like a sack lunch...something that I could put off and consume another day. You know...the sack lunch that you take to work, put in the fridge, and then at 11:30 a.m. you decide you'd rather have a cheeseburger and fries...so you put it off planning to eat the sack lunch tomorrow. How many times have I done that to my kids..."oh, I'll get to that tomorrow." Or, "I don't have time to take you today, maybe we can go next week." Maybe what I need to do is just eat the sack lunch now...before it spoils, before it's stale. Before they grow, and move on, maybe I need to make the time...take the time...to enjoy to the fullest what God has blessed me with? Hmmmm....

Well, I feel better now...cuz' I have a plan. I'm going to eat the sack lunch next time. That cheeseburger can wait!