Savoring Present Gifts

I’ve been reading a few people’s writing lately about living in the moment….about being present with my family…with each one.  I have been moved by this encouragement not to rush through life - always living in ‘fast forward’ trying to get through what’s before me so I can get to what’s next. 

We don’t appreciate music played in fast forward.  We don’t appreciate the story read in double time so we can get through it and can’t let our minds wander to that beautiful meadow and pick flowers with the girls on the prairie or enter into the mysterious cave with the boys.

So I think about living in the moment…about savoring the moments with my children before they fly away.  And I’ve come to a conclusion that we have to plan to live in the moment.  This living in the moment doesn’t happen by accident.  This isn’t ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ living.  Some people call it being intentional and creating margin.

Being intentional about our activities and our attitudes is what allows us the savoring.  Being intentional takes planning and planning takes time.  So we need to intentionally plan time to plan, and to savor the planning moments too. 

Somehow we sometimes forget all that is necessary or exchange it for the unnecessary and easy until the necessary becomes urgent and pushes us into fast forward mode and robs us of the gift of this moment with these ones who are also gifts…and robs them of the gift of us being truly present.

And it also robs us of seeing God in the moment.

So I try to slow this moment.  And I will try to pray through and think through my day so that I can savor the moments and give my full attention to each one – both the moments and the people.  Today, I might not be successful.  But tomorrow, I just might.  And if I can get a taste of the sweetness of the now-gifts, I will want more.  And so the days of savoring will eventually outnumber the days of hurrying and worrying and I will have accomplished more of significance than I could have ever imagined.

     ^{Matthew 6:25} “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

     ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Bible text from biblegateway.com