As I write this, Lucy is a freshly-minted five-month-old. I’m not sure if it seems like it’s been that long or not; the first few weeks were such a blur. I’ve started noticing how big she’s gotten when I see younger babies. I was shocked at church the other day when I saw a newborn cradled in the arms of her mother sitting in front of me. “There’s no way Lucy was ever that small!” I thought. And yet I know she was.
There’s something about having kids that really lets you know how much time flies, and that it’s NOT on your side. When it was just me and Kim, time seemed to go by much slower. Sure, there were a few grey hairs that popped up, but there weren’t many other markers constantly reminding us of the passage of time.
Not like seeing an infant grow up before your eyes.
It’s one thing to preach the importance of appreciating every moment, but it’s another thing to live it. It’s not like Math or History. Once you know that 2 plus 2 equals 4, or that George Washington was the first American president, you pretty much got it. It’s there in your brain, and you don’t have to keep reminding yourself about it. But life is so fast, so busy, and so prone to distraction that it’s easy to get swept away for days, weeks, or even years at a time before you slow down to take stock and keep first things first.
You can know the importance of it – you can even preach it from the pulpit – but unless you commit to taking the daily action of living it out, it’s as if you didn’t really know it at all. It might even be worse, because once you wake up to the reality of wasted time and missed opportunities, you realize that you knew better.
There’s no pill to take to remedy Adultitis. No surgery or magic elixir. It takes habit, strengthened each day by a consistent desire to see with new eyes, appreciate the little things, and maintain perspective.
Don’t rest on your knowledge about what’s important in your life; make sure your actions match up. It’s hard, but worth every minute. And it’s certainly less painful than the regret of not doing it when you had the chance.
P.S. Looking for a tangible plan to take those daily steps against Adultitis? Try this.
