It's All We're Promised

Former First Lady Barbara Bush gave a commencement speech at Wellesley College in 1990. Her speech is regarded as one of the top 100 speeches of the 20th century. The graduating class was expecting her to celebrate their achievements and stoke their ambition for future business successes. Toward the end of the speech the First Lady called their attention to a bedrock truth about life. She said:

“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent.”

Her words are right on! Scripture underscores the importance of doing our best to nurture healthy families. Ephesians 6:4 says that children should be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. A lot of living is packed into that verse! Quality and consistent human interaction is at least assumed in Paul’s words. “Bringing up” just can’t be done any other way. And yet, our culture makes it difficult to maintain the disciplines that produce strong family connections. Jammed schedules. Unending tasks. Exhaustion. Information saturation. Infatuation with cyberspace and television. Endless text messaging. Stressors. Eating on the fly. Makes you tired just thinking about it. Given the break-neck pace at which our culture moves it is no wonder that we find ourselves sharing the same house but fighting to have quality interaction that allows us to nurture and strengthen one another.

A mother and wife recently said, “I feel like we are strangers with the same last name! We’ve gotten to the point that we speak in soundbytes on the fly!” Perhaps you can identify with her. Lots of people can.

Our culture will not suggest that we slow down. Staying connected in our families will depend on our ability to remain aware of our primary needs as individuals and as believers. Carving out time to focus on each other and check each other’s “pulse” is more difficult than it sounds. I’ve heard countless adults say, “We finally reached the point that we had to call time-out. Life was living us instead of us living it! We had to take charge of our pacing and attend to the needs that we knew were staring us in the face every week.” Truer words haven’t been spoken.

It begins with awareness of where we are as a family. How are we doing? What do we need right now? What interactive habits do we need to put in place for our well being?

The world rushes on but we don’t have to rush with it. We can find time to love, care for, pray with, listen to and encourage one another. And, there is no time like the present. It’s all we’re promised.

Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas