this one hour matters

Today was an interesting day.

Most Saturday's I'm more frantic, thinking about what to do for... well, tomorrow. Sunday is always a big day for me, so Saturday is always the day before. It seems to happen that way every week without fail, go figure.

I have been under the conviction, or my wife's nudging (me too, trust me), that I should rearrange how I work to make Saturday more open so family time can take place. This makes sense, especially when you have a grade school kid as a son... Saturday is the day he's home.

So I have been trying, really, to work in such a way where Saturday is not too full. And today I made it happen. And though at first it was a little hard (ok, I cheated, I finished cleaning my leaves for 1.5 hours in the morning, but that was only b/c my son was out, and the weather won't allow me to finish it really soon), but by noon it was getting real nice. We ate lunch, I skimmed the paper, did some Bible reading with my son corresponding to what he's walking through in our church community, we then got dressed and played outside for 2 hours (including my daughter), came in to play many rounds of 'UNO' and just a few rounds less of 'Connect Four,' we ate supper (yes the whole afternoon flew by), then practiced piano together only to get to one last game (Kid's Cranium version) before it was time for bed. Wow, it was a huge success... and an incredible joy.

One day I can look back and wonder where all the time went that I should have, could have, must have spent time with the people that matter the most in my life. Schedules can be rearranged, but relationships are harder. I still have ways to go, there's lots more Saturdays to make priority of, but I'm glad this one didn't slip me by.

Last night I watched 'Meet the Robinsons' with my kids and the theme song came on at the end and I heard the word regret in the lyrics and quickly tuned into the rest of the song. The chorus has this line in it, something like, "this one hour (will matter)." That was a good message for me. I want these hours to matter while they exist.