By guest author Lorrie Langemann
My cousin, Lori Jane, was in elementary school when her teacher asked each student to draw a picture of his/her mother. After school, she ran home, excited to show her picture to her mother. My aunt was very surprised to see a drawing of a clock as her image. Lori Jane explained, “Mommy, because time is so important to you!”
We have all heard the drill of “redeeming the time,” “making every minute count,” “don’t waste the opportunity,” etc. But what about how we use the time of others?
It is obvious that if a corporate executive is 15 minutes late for a meeting with twelve others, over three hours of time is easily lost. But how about our time as home schooling moms? What happens when we stay on the phone past the time we scheduled our school day to start? Or when we stay a little (or a lot) longer after a lesson or class to chat while our children are waiting or running around loose? Or when we bump a prior commitment to them for our own convenience — how is this respecting their time?
Conversations and counsel are invaluable, but I challenge you, as much as possible, to respect the time of your children as you respect the time of your doctor. Keep your word as far as is possible, and they will learn to respect your time and the time of others.
Lillian Dickson wrote:
“Life is like a silver coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once.”
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