When Your Days are Numbered

When your days are numbered, you look at life differently.
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The pitter patter of not-so-little feet wakes me from my slumber. My bathroom light shocks the early morning darkness. Thirty seconds later comes my little boy’s voice, “Mama, I love you.” Then he climbs in bed and snuggles up next to me. Almost every morning.

Why doesn’t he use the hall bathroom, I sometimes wonder, frustrated at the moments of lost sleep.

Later in the day… “I need mommy love!” comes a tiny voice as my baby girl stretches her little hands up to me.

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Sometimes I sigh. Her timing is rarely convenient.

That night…“Mama, can we look up that song I wanted to show you?” This time it’s my almost-tween. She’s so grown up, so beautiful. She has her own tastes, her own style – a fact I abruptly realized last time I took her clothes shopping. I forget how much she still needs me.

It’s so easy to see their requests and needs as interruptions. I often mistake their cries for relationship as more “work” for me. And I begrudge the gifts that they and God are offering me.

Sometimes the tyranny of the urgent distracts me from the beauty of the moment.

Someday my little boy will wake me up to snuggle for the last time. One day my baby girl will say, “I need mommy love”…and then never say it again. The day will come when my big girl offers her last invitation to look into her soul as we just sit and listen to her favorite songs together. Because kids grow up. Time moves on. And today’s gifts are gone.

My living room will stay tidy one day. No more dolls and toys and art supplies strewn all over the rug. No more books hiding under the couch. No more tiny construction vehicles to step on in the middle of the night. Because this season I’m living is just that – a season.

Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts” (Ps 90:12).

Our days are numbered.  We will never see these moments again. Ever. They will soon be simply memories.

Today is a gift from the Giver of all good things. Let’s stop and breathe and choose to rejoice in the things that really matter.

O God, give me wisdom to see the gifts You extend each day. When I get too busy to cherish your goodness – arrest my attention. Refocus me. Remind me that all our days are numbered. Give me wisdom to see and savor Your gifts.

What gifts has God given you in your current season? How will you slow down and savor them today?