What’s Your Hurry?

Posted on by Michele Morin

From time to time, I experiment with timelessness by taking off my watch.

That naked wrist feels as daring and vulnerable as a bathing suit in a January blizzard, while every glance to check the time quickens my pulse to the rhythm of the question that my heart needs to hear:  What’s your hurry?

Contriving a virtue where perhaps there is none, I like to believe that I’ve acquired a “disciplined approach” to time:  a “watch your minutes and your hours will take care of themselves” Depression-era frugality with the span of my days.

And it’s true enough that my huge garden and my history of homeschooling four boys have given me plenty of opportunity to fine-tune the art and science of multi-tasking.  I’ve folded laundry and entertained a baby while listening to an eight-year-old practicing his piano lesson; I’ve canned green beans while quietly scribbling rhymed clues for a birthday scavenger hunt; I’ve made strawberry jam while preparing a lesson to teach at VBS the next morning. 

It can be hazardous to take off your watch when you’re the only one in the house who can tell time – especially if there is a schedule out there somewhere that’s holding together a fragile infrastructure.  However, it occurred to me this year (I’m a slow learner) that I’m past the mid-point in this journey of raising boys with more years of parenting in the rear-view mirror than on the road ahead.  Furthermore, I’ve also noticed (I said I was a slow learner!) that all my boys are becoming competent and trustworthy —  unlikely to eat Drano or to put a fork into an outlet — and are very cued-in to their own schedules and needs.  They write their own work hours into pocket-sized planners carried around in man-sized pants.  They can make a sandwich if they need to.  While this is a salutary thing, it also means that this metamorphosis into independence has happened right under my nose while I have been busily making pizza and grousing about the odd number of socks under the couch.  

Did I hurry through potty-training so that I could hurry through tooth fairy visits and multiplication flash cards?

Have I hurried through bedtime prayers and the blessing song so that I could hurry through curfews and car keys?

What’s my hurry?

I want the volume of this question to drown out the ticking of the clock and the notion that no matter how much I accomplish in a day, it’s not enough. I want to tear down the giant parentheses that I’ve erected around my minutes so that I can listen to the person who is talking to me and be all there; so that if someone has a great idea, it doesn’t have to elbow its way through the web of plans that I’ve already solidified.

I am celebrating (and at the same time coercing myself into) this healthier relationship with time by:

  • Purchasing a smaller day planner. Fewer lines each day means fewer tasks-bump it to the next day or leave it undone. An over-long do-list leaves no space for a be-list.
  • Going for a daily walk with a lumbering St. Bernard. Sometimes I bring memorized verses on 3×5 cards to review, but sometimes my brain is a blue screen of invitation for God’s thoughts to permeate.
  • Reading Scripture out loud when I’m alone in the house (or waiting in the mini-van) which forces me to slow down and to form the words with my mouth, to hear myself saying truth, to savor the syllables and gain the grace that slows my pulse.

As I turn the pages and ponder the words that God has given, I find the truth that my time, like my next breath, is a gift from God, and He owns forever. So, what’s my hurry?

To gain the luxury of laughing over shared silliness and the comfort of simply sharing space with my favorite people, can I resist the greed and impatience of a life that is lived to the ticking off of tasks?

Next, next, next, next, next, next, next …

I’ve observed (and complained) that it is the nature of God to do many things very slowly. He takes all the long leisure of eternity to accomplish His purposes, so who am I to act as if time were something to be hoarded? God may require that I walk when I’d prefer to run, and, as Shepherd of my soul, He may say that it’s time for me to lie down.

What’s your hurry, soul? Read the words of Psalm 31:14-15 and mean it:

“But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD;
I say, ‘You are my God.’
My times are in Your hand.”

Lord, teach me the wisdom of conducting my life according to Your timetable, for You are the One who holds time.

 

This post first appeared at SheLoves Magazine.

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Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four sons, four daughters-in-love, and six adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

38 thoughts on “What’s Your Hurry?”

  3. I’m afraid I hurried through much of my children’s growing up years. I’m trying to slow down and savor my grandies’ childhood because now I know how quick it flashes by!

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  4. After reading this I am going to be more intentional about being there and not hurrying through family, life and every other thing!
    It is Ok to stop and just play and not work!!! Thinking out loud*
    Thanks Michele…Thank you
    Blessings to you

    Like

  5. Great article, Michele. Oh how much we can learn if we pay more attention to time’s whispers. Thank you for the reminder, this morning. Blessed to be neighboring you at Weekend Whispers today.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Hmmm…what is our hurry sometimes? Great question Michele. I’ve enjoyed this non-hurried weekend, forced into stillness and quiet by the snow storm. Thanks for making me think today! 🙂

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  8. It is such a great question. Funny thing is … I remember while my children were growing up, I wanted time to slow down & to savor the moments, which I did. And time still hurried by. Time truly passes quickly on its own. We don’t need to offer it any help 🙂 So much wisdom in this post. May we all take the time to enjoy the moment as each moment is indeed precious. Blessings!

    Liked by 1 person

  12. This one got me in my heart! I’m in the curfews and car keys arena now, along with the, “What, no, wait, WHO asked my daughter on her first date?” phase. Scary stuff. But I’m treasuring it and time is definitely turning and churning at a much higher rate of speed than it used to – I swear it. What’s my hurry? Great thing to remember!

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  13. I think as we get older, we contemplate more every aspect of our lives…our days…our moments. i want to savor them. Hug a little longer. Listen a little closer. Sit at Jesus feet a little more often. Thanks so much.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. I like this so much. “They write their own work hours into pocket-sized planners carried around in man-sized pants. They can make a sandwich if they need to. ” Are you an empty-nester now or ? I don’t feel as though I rushed through raising my kids but I sure have a few regrets! xo

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m a past the mid-point mum. I have one married, one in college, one in high school and one in eighth grade. I homeschool the two guys that are still at home, so they’re closer to home than they might be, and yet . . . they have full lives — and man-sized pants.

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  16. Oh, this is good. I’m guilty of hurrying my kids through life sometimes. God’s been showing me how to slow and appreciate THIS season because the next one isn’t too far away. Thanks for affirming what God’s been teaching me. And thanks for linking up at #ThreeWordWednesday.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Hurry, Hurry, Hurry. The story of my life! I am learning by the grace of God to slow down. It is a struggle at times, I must admit. Thank you for your reminder to slow down and remember my time is a gift from God! Visiting from Thankful Thursday!

    Liked by 1 person

  19. I left a comment on the other site. Thank you for the encouragement to slow down and savor the last few years I have for parenting. Thanks for sharing with Thankful Thursdays.

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