Tonight I asked my two sons what they most want us to do together. John Paul (8 years old) said: "I'd like to go to a restaurant with you or play catch with the football." Joseph (12 years old) said "I want to ride bikes with you and play football and have you read stories to us at night and see a movie and and and..." He named about ten other things.
(Photo courtesy of Grace Minton)
I remember telling Joseph on his tenth birthday, as he was getting ready for bed, "Joseph, you and I are going to have to spend a little more one on one time together this year. You're getting older and I don't want the time to fly by too fast." This sounded very fatherly and for a moment it felt like I was being a great Dad. But I did not follow through. So the closer it came to his eleventh birthday, the more I regretted how I had allowed precious time to fly by. When I get too busy - my sons lose something - and so do I. Glad to say by his twelfth birthday we had begun doing some things together, just the two of us. Still need to work on that, but getting better.
What about you guys? What if you men asked your sons (or daughters) what they'd most like to do with you right now? Wonder what they would tell you. Just a thought.
And what about you fathers of grown children? Did you make the time or wish to God you had? Advise us if you did - how did you manage it? And if you did not make the time, all is not lost. Turn that regret into encouragement for those of us who still have a chance to turn things around with our own children. Tell us why you think it is important to make that time for our sons and daughters. What do you wish you would have done differently?
We can never hear too many real life stories of why we absolutely must make time for our children before the moment is gone.
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