How to Spend Your Weekend

My husband emailed me this morning from work and asked if there was anything that I wanted to do this weekend.  I replied back with this: "Fly to a remote island and sit on a sandy beach sipping cold beverages while listening to the waves lap."

Before I get into this too far, I will state that I love my boys dearly.  They bring an immense amount of joy to our home and make so many things FUN.  I feel lucky to stay home with them and nurture them as they grow and learn about the world around them.  However, typically by Friday, the week has worn on long enough.  I often envision myself strapping on my running shoes so that when Justin arrives home from work at 5:00 or the dreaded 5:30 (what is it with that extra 30 minutes that just about sends me over the edge?) I can catapult myself out the door and leave everything and everyone behind.

Since becoming a parent, I realize how selfish I can be.  Weekends are not like they used to be.  Before I would enjoy sleeping in, going for a run or bike ride, possibly go to a store or two and leisurely take it all in.  If it were a rainy day around the holidays I might cozy under a blanket and enjoy a Lifetime movie or four.  There was free reading and looking through magazines for new decorating ideas.  Oh and meeting friends at a coffee shop and talking for hours.  You see, after long weeks, sometimes I daydream about those days and even long for them.  Then a whiny voice or stinky diaper smell wafts by and I'm shaken back to reality that THAT AIN'T HAPPENIN' THIS WEEKEND!

It's not that I suddenly don't like my kids or am not thankful for our current life situation, I think I just long for some respite, some solace, a step away.

Aren't we lucky that God doesn't feel that way about His relationship with us?  In Joshua 13:5 it reads, "...Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." He is always yearning for us to turn to Him, to spend time with Him.  Even when I whine and when my thoughts or words have a stench, He still longs to hold me in the palm of His hand.  He never flies to a remote island for vacation.  He's always here.  This God who loves us so much that He sent His only Son to endure a painful death so that we could live.  And yet, many choose not to live for Him.

Friend, are you living for the Lord?  

The events of the world today would lead me to believe that He will be returning soon.  It's never too late to give your life to Him, to make better choices with how you spend your time or your weekend.  Don't delay! 

"Behold, I am coming soon!  My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.  Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.  I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.  I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star." -Revelation 22:12-16