Why is it that we are able to relax and enjoy our grandchildren easier than we ever could with our own children? I have spent a great deal of time pondering this and I decided the main reason for me is that I am just too tired to keep up with everything so I prioritize on the fun stuff and let the rest go! Instead of running around like a crazy person I sit back and enjoy those two boys. Now, don't get me wrong, I still have OCD's aplenty and find myself doing laundry several times a day (they only needed one outfit really as it was washed and ready for the next day before I went to bed)... and I did tidy the house and start the dishwasher before calling it a day. But I am not at all as particular as I was when raising my 2 daughters, in those days everything had to be perfect! My daughters tease me to this day about telling them to "clean up that mess and find something to do" or "you can only have one toy out at a time" (which makes Legos hard to play with) or "put your toys away in their proper home (I organized everything in "families" including how you load the dishwasher) ... ok even I think I sound like a crazy person. BUT, in my defense our home was always clean and ready for company - even though none of my friends wanted to come over because my clean home made them uncomfortable!
So back to the grandsons, with them I just want to snuggle and play and enjoy every second I get with them. My heart is happy when I am with them.The material things in life matter less. My family matters most. With age comes the realization of your own mortality and the fact that you are not going to be around forever. Relationships and family become top of the list - which is where they should have been to begin with. But we get caught up in living life - as hectic as it is - and before we know it our kids are grown and out of the house living hectic lives of their own. Don't get me wrong, we are busy doing good things - but we keep ourselves busier than God ever intended. We forget to slow down and smell the roses - in fact we don't even notice that there are roses! I see children being kept so busy they don't have time to just play and be kids. My husbands best memories from his childhood are the countless hours he spent roaming the mountainside with his buddies. When the grandsons are here he loves nothing more than to work in the garden with them teaching them how to plant trees and dig weeds or relive his childhood by taking them out to roam the hills looking for fossils and cool rocks.
My goal for the rest of the year is to slow down, enjoy more fully the beautiful world we live in, spend more time with my kids and worry less about the things that don't matter. It is in our unhurried moments that we can see more clearly and hear what God wants us to hear. He loves us so much, but we are often so busy with life that we don't even hear what he has to say. I know that my life is better when God is in the details - without his guidance and direction I can't make it where I need to go. And more than anything I want my sweet grandsons to know that for themselves. I want them to know how to focus on God and to recognize his voice. I can't teach them something I don't do myself.
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