Time

The plea came from a crowned princess, just before bedtime: “Mom, can we have our shaving cream bath now?”

Who could resist Her Royal Highness?

For this very purpose, we purchased a 14-ounce can of “Personal Care Extra Thick Shave Cream — Regular.”

Atop her head, I piled cream, like soft-serve vanilla. She spread the cream on the shower wall, and wrote her name in three-inch-tall letters. With pointer finger, she traced out shaving-cream numbers, 0 through 9.

Beside her, Big Sister practiced spelling words: “sheik” and “kimono” and “barbecue.”

Tonight, messes were allowed, even encouraged. Tonight, there were no parental calls to “hurry up; it’s time for bed.”

Tonight, they would tarry.

Twenty bucks worth of fun in a $1.06 aerosol can.

***

In these last months, rest has been scarce. No time to tarry, for there was another student paper to grade, another project to complete, another ministry to tend to. All good things, mind you, but they had begun to crowd out my priority mission field: the one here in our home, with our two girls.

“Come unto me,” He calls, “and I will give you rest.”

***

Our children have much: a room full of Barbies, a child-sized kitchen, cribs for babies and approximately 563 stuffed animals. They could get lost in Webkinz World on the laptop, or Mario Brothers on the Nintendo DS.

But the commodity they desire most isn’t packaged by Fisher Price. They want one thing. Just one.

It costs nothing, but has measureless worth. Time.

They want our time.

Time. Stolen moments in cream-covered bathtubs.

Time. Minutes on pavement, drawing Hopscotch patterns with “chalk rocks.”

Time. Sunset Hour in harvested fields, unearthing nature’s gems.


Time.
Candlelit dinners
with Kraft Mac & Cheese.
Saturday morning
picnics, with Honeycomb,
on living-room floor.
Treasure hunts, tractor rides
tick-tack-toe and tuck-ins.

***

Just now, outside my window, a late-season blizzard has begun to blow — on this spring day in Iowa.

Nowhere to go. No appointment to make. No phone call to take. No meal to deliver. No project that beckons.

Only this: children’s sweet laughter calling in the room next door. And a mother with time to share in it …

***

This post is part of the writing project by Laity Lodge Family Camp in the Texas Hill Country. The lodge is sponsoring a Family Fun Time Giveaway at their lodge. Bloggers are encouraged to write a short essay with Family Fun Time tips, and then link to this page: http://llfamilycamp.org/family-fun-time-giveaway.

Join in! You can post anytime from now until April 8. Click the link above for details.

I meant to share tips in this post, as we were encouraged to do, but felt this story rising to the top instead: a story of a heart seeking rest and finding it alongside her children.

May you find true rest in Him today.