Time Is Love.

"I know i gotta put in the hours, make the money while the sunlight shines
but anything i gotta get done, it can get done some other time.

Time is love, gotta run, love to hang longer, but i got someone who waits,
waits for me and right now, he's where i need to be, time is love, gotta run.

I only get so many minutes, don't wanna spend 'em all on the clock
in the time that we spent talkin', how many kisses have i lost?"






This song reads like a song intended to be about a man and a woman. So in love, that really, all they want to do is be together. When I listen to this song, I hear those things. But I also think of my children.  The fact is, when it comes to children, Time IS love. And children do a lot of waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for kisses, waiting for their turn to play, waiting for me to tuck them in. It's easy in the hustle and bustle of everyday life to forget how much they need me. It's easy to find something else that's more important than taking that five minutes to read them a story. But then...I stop and think to myself...how long have they waited for that?

Those of us who get to fall asleep in the next room from our children every night are the lucky ones. Our opportunities are much more abundant to make the time. We're the one that are required to make time for snuggles, race cars, playing baby, and watching "Toy Story 3" for the 2898293840239482037423th time. We're charged with wiping snotty noses, and holding the throw-up buckets. We hold them close when they're scared, we wipe their tears when they're sad. We nurse them back to health, and we watch them get sick again. We're the entertainment committee, the teachers, the nurses, the chefs, the librarians, the taxi drivers, the playmates, and the friends. We're the parents. It's for this reason, that making the time is SO important for the other half of the parenting team...the half that isn't there.

It's for those reasons that they MUST understand how important promises are, and how much breaking them can hurt. It's important that they realize how significant a phone call is, even if the attention span is only seconds long. Time IS love, and just a few minutes goes a long way. Checking in a sick child from a distance. Sending a letter with love for a special day, or just because. Taking the time to get to know their child...the best they can from where they are. Understanding that that baby WAITS. Even when they don't realize it, they have someone who waits for them. Someone who wants them. Realizing how powerful that is...and how much it can hurt if it's abused.

Being a working parent can be hard. I don't do it now, which I'm thankful for, but in the years following Jason's birth, I was active duty military, and this is a 5 year old boy that knows all about waiting...and knows better than most that time is love. Josh Turner never sang more true words, because no relationship, whether it be between a man and a woman, two friends, a parent and their child, or siblings will thrive without time. Love will always remain, because I don't think it's possible to "un-love" someone....but effort, time, and interest are necessary ingredients in all great relationships. It doesn't always have to be large amounts of time, it has to be the effort to be there, the interest to keep them from waiting.

I don't believe in "too busy". I don't believe in "too stressed". I believe that Time Is Love. And without time, you ruin love. You destroy feelings that are strong and precious and pure. And once the damage is done, you can't recover from it. The trick, I imagine...is understanding that.