The Future Seems So Far Away

Sometimes the future seems so far away. I read this quote from The Next Right Thing by Emily Freeman. “It’s a slow work building a life. But the future always comes.” We look at our kids, at whatever age they are now, and feel like the future when they leave us is so incredibly far away. Yet, we know in our hearts that it will be here and gone in the blink of an eye.

Barbies, legos, trucks and cars, crayons and markers will give way to phones, wallets, keys, and textbooks. It’s hard to see that right now when I step on a lego in the middle of the night or when I can’t see the floor in my girls’ room because it’s covered in the world that they’ve created for their Barbies. Little girls twirling around and giggling in princess dresses will give way to running out the door in a uniform for work. Master lego building by my boy will give way to long work hours and college classes.

Just to keep it real, this is the photo I snapped when I went into my girls’ room this morning. Yikes! (See, all the Barbie mentions are not metaphorical)

Looking Past What’s Before Me

These moments won’t last forever, and I try to remind myself of that. Because in the here and now, it’s easy to lose sight of that. In the here and now, it seems so much more important to get my kids to pick up their room, to make them finish their math homework, to get them to stop fighting and arguing, to get them to leave me alone for just five minutes so I can go to the bathroom or take a shower. Right now, all I can see is the mess before my eyes that wasn’t there ten minutes ago.

Yet, these precious few years are the gift God’s given to me. Yes, it’s a gift; even though it may not feel like that on a Tuesday morning when the laundry’s overflowing, the kids are late to start school, there’s endless fighting, tears over schoolwork, no milk in the fridge for cereal, and a mess everywhere I look. It’s in these moments that the future seems so incredibly far away. It seems so intangible. Yet, it won’t always be that way.

Don’t Look at What’s Before You

Soon, my kids will leave our home one by one. They will head off in different directions, some of them never to live at home again. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that in those days when it’s quiet and the house is perfectly clean that I will long for the crazy chaos that is my kids. That mess of Barbies all over the floor? I will wish for that once more. I will wish for my table to be covered in the latest Lego masterpiece. The quiet will make me long for the sounds of my kids because it’s the sound of love, of family.

So, if you’re feeling weary today, young Mom. If you’re feeling like your house will never be clean. The kids will never learn to pick up after themselves or stop fighting. You will never be caught up on laundry in this life or the next, and you would give anything for just an hour of uninterrupted quiet time…Then let me encourage you today. Don’t see things for how they are right now. Don’t focus on the mess, the noise, the chaos, the frustration, and all the things that are wrong. Instead, focus on the faces in front of you. Count down how many years you have left with each of those precious faces and choose to make today count.

The Days Are Long, but the Years are Short

I’m saying this to myself today, because it’s January. The days are long and cold, my kids are cooped up inside and have been cranky and fighting with each other every day, all day long. Attitudes have been raging, and frustrations have been mounting. I need to be reminded of what’s really important. I’ve heard this said about child-rearing. “The days are long, but the years are short.” Oh how much wisdom there is in that saying!

What’s really important to remember is that I have six years left with my oldest. That’s 72 weeks or 2,291 days. When put like that, I might be able to overlook his intense frustration for Math today and just help him get through it. I can focus more on hugging him and letting him know I love him, rather than correcting his bad handwriting. When I run the numbers for each of my kids, they are surprisingly small. Six years, seven years, eleven years, and twelve years don’t seem nearly long enough. So I must choose to make the most of today. That’s all I can do, yet that’s the greatest thing I can do today.

The Future Isn’t So Far Away

The future looks so far away when I look at today, but it will be here before I can blink an eye. The future isn’t all that far away. “Building a life is a slow work. But the future always comes.” It will be here before we know it. Will I look back on these years with my kids with regret? Will I wish we would have taken more trips to the park, played more games together, laughed more, talked more, done more crazy fun stuff? Or will I look back and nod and say, “We built an amazing life together.”

For More Encouragement

For more encouragement on this topic, check out The Hands-Free Mama by Rachel Stafford or check out my post, Keep Going, Mama.