February 8, 2017

Ours is a busy and fast-paced culture. Unless we deliberately plan our schedule, we will find someone else doing it for us. While each of us has the same number of minutes in a day, we often allow another person or event to keep us from living a joy-filled life because we have not thought ahead about what our definition of really living life involves.

In early America, the challenges and priorities of agricultural life brought the family together. Milking cows and tending gardens were important for survival and even very young children learned these skills. The entire family enjoyed meals together. There was no TV or telephone, so visiting neighbors, playing games, working puzzles and reading books was routine.

All of that has changed for most of us. Add to that the long list of options offered that takes each member of the family in a different direction on most days or evenings, including weekends. Some families would be embarrassed to admit the number of times in the last month that they have enjoyed a casual meal together, unrushed and with no distractions.

Young families are being encouraged to have it all, do it all and acquire as much stuff as possible in the process. The simple life is mostly a memory. There is little time to share life experiences with our children because we are rushing around trying to get to the next event. The sports world has discovered Sunday, so family worship at church takes a back seat way too often.

The electronics are great and the opportunities wonderful, so I am not opposed to life as it is offered to us today – in fact, I like what we get to enjoy. But I believe as time goes by, we will look back with regret when we admit we really were so busy that we did not take sufficient time to live. We will wish we had laughed more, hurried less, missed a few events and appreciated each other more.

If the kids are still living at home, it is not too late to make some adjustments in our life journey. It is worth taking the time to evaluate and decide to take back management of our life.

Pastor Bill Ehmann