MAKING TIME FOR YOUR CHILDREN- Great Dads make time for their children
Some of the best parenting advice for new parents is to realize the difference between “Having Time” and “Making Time”. We all have the same amount of time: twenty-four hours, one thousand four hundred and forty minutes, or eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds each day depending on how you want to look at it. This element of the equation is constant and cannot be changed, but what can be changed is how we allocate the time we have. Once a day is gone it can never be reclaimed, reused, or recycled, it is now in our past. In light of this reality, making the most of every day given to us is essential.
Most men have busy lives, it seems that being busy is a standard aspect of life on earth as we rush around doing the things that need to get done. I have rarely met a man who says he has too much free time on his hands and not enough to do, especially those men who have a ‘family’. Whether working on our careers, spending time with our wives and children, exercising for our health, or just socializing with friends, it often seems that each day’s schedule is already full before we even get there! Often making time for our children doesn't just happen by itself.
MAKING TIME FOR YOUR CHILDREN- Setting Our Priorities
Therefore it is vital to be proactive and learn how to effectively prioritize our lives. One of the most useful things a man can do is spend some quality time deciding what is important to him as an individual, and then establishing clear priorities in his heart and mind. Once these priorities are established he must diligently defend them and not allow the ‘urgent’ aspects of business to overcome the ‘important’ aspects of life.
MAKING TIME FOR YOUR CHILDREN- Writing priorities down
I recommend listing every area of your life that takes up your time. It may start with merely a group of words all mixed up like Work, Wife, Gym, Children, Soccer, Social Life, Parents, House Renovation, Shopping, Holidays, Church Life etc. Then as we progress through our list decide those areas that mean the most to you in life. By searching our hearts, we start defining what is most and least important to us. Eventually, all those jumbled words will become clear in the order of their significance or value to us as individuals.
It may end up looking something like this:
· My relationship with God
· My relationship with my family (Wife and Children)
· My career
· My relationship with my parents/siblings
· My sport/health/gym
· My relationship with my friends
· House Renovations
· Etc, Etc
Only you can decide what you want to be your top priority in life. However, one thing I would say is that as a pastor, I never ministered to a man on his deathbed who wished he’d spent more time at work/making money. Without fail every person I ever ministered to realized that everything besides those you love fades into insignificance at the end of your life. I hope that as men and fathers, we can grasp this reality early in life.
MAKING TIME FOR YOUR CHILDREN- Making time for our children
When we spend quality time with our children our actions tell them they are important to us. It means that at that moment they are the most important thing in your life. This speaks volumes to young children who constantly look for validation and acceptance and goes a long way toward strengthening their self-image.
MAKING TIME FOR YOUR CHILDREN- Positioning our priorities
‘Great Dads’ purposely position their family relationships within the very highest places on their priority list. When our children are truly our priority we do not allow other seemingly ‘urgent’ things to take their place in our life. When other things attempt to intrude upon that relationship we defend against them earnestly. A father who says he wants to spend time with his children but consistently allows the ‘urgent’ things of life to intrude into that time, may well reach the end of his life alone and abandoned by the children who felt abandoned by him.
MAKING TIME FOR YOUR CHILDREN- Investing in our family's future
If we want to enjoy the benefits of a loving and caring family, fathers must invest time and energy initially, so that we can receive abundant returns later. Being a ‘Great Dad’ will take time and effort from us, but we will receive back far more than we ever give. Our heartfelt commitment to being a ‘Great Dad’ opens up a deep, wonderful relationship with our children that will last a lifetime.
God Bless
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