“I miss Grandmama and Granddaddy. I haven’t seen them since Easter.” My five-year-old granddaughter, Anna, said those words to her mama last week.
What she said isn’t exactly true. Since Easter, we’ve been to several of her ballgames. Our family went out to dinner for her uncle’s birthday, and we celebrated together at the birthday party for her twin siblings. We would have been together more than that if all three of the children in her family hadn’t been sick, and I hadn’t been on the road for some business travel.
But I knew what she meant. She was out on the field when we went to her ballgames so we just had a few minutes together before and after games. Our attention was scattered with all our family at the restaurant. And with lots of children playing, it was a wild and crazy scene at Eden and Ethan’s third birthday party.
What Anna was saying was, “I haven’t had my time with Grandmama and Granddaddy.”
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Paul and I love our grandchildren. We have six grandbabies, and they’re all five and under. Each of them is unique and so precious to us. It’s sweet watching them play together, but we especially love our one-on-one time with each child when we get the chance for that—and our grandchildren love it as well.
When Paul and I take Anna out on a date, she always wants to go to Papa’s for “beans and rice and mokie.” And for all of you who are still trying to figure that out, “mokie” is guacamole. Anna called it that when she was two, and we all call it “mokie” now.
It’s so sweet watching Anna and Granddaddy walking hand-in-hand and seeing her cuddled up close to him while we wait for our food. Sometimes we take her to Walmart after dinner so she can buy something, but often, she just wants to go back to our house to play or to watch a movie with us.
She loves Anne of Green Gables, and I soak in the sweetness of her tucked under my arm while we watch. Or sometimes she sits on Granddaddy’s lap with her head on his shoulder, so snuggled in that she looks like she’s melted onto him.
That’s what Anna was missing.
You know, our lives as Christians are sometimes like that. We go to church on Sunday . . . but our minds are on everything but the sermon. We play some Christian music in the background—but we don’t pay attention to the words while we ride in our cars or zip around in our houses.
We have our Bibles on our coffee tables and devotional books stacked high on our nightstands, but we don’t read them—or if we do, it’s just a couple of verses late at night when we’re so tired that nothing makes sense. And our prayer life? Let’s just say that prayer is often better than counting sheep to put us to sleep.
Does any of that sound familiar? I suspect all of us are guilty of this from time to time. We hover on the fringes spiritually, but we don’t have that intimate one-on-one time with God, that time where we shut out everything else in our lives and He becomes the focus.
Spring and summer are the busiest times of the year for me as a writer and speaker. I travel a good bit to teach and speak at writing and film conferences and at church events. Since my Just 18 Summers novel ties in to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and summer, I typically do a number of radio interviews in conjunction with that.
Add in industry events for publishing and film, numerous writing obligations, studying for speaking engagements, keeping up with my parenting blog, working part-time for our family business, and brainstorming and compiling new projects, and the days speed by at a dizzying pace.
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And just like little Anna missed her time with us, in the midst of this crazy time of the year, I’ve realized something: I miss God. Now don’t get me wrong. I go to church. I read my Bible and devotional book. I pray.
But there’s something inside me that craves that intimate one-on-one time with God. Time when I can sit and just worship Him, when I can snuggle close and feel His presence. Moments when I can talk with Him and listen to what He has to say to me without the distractions of life pulling me away. Times when I can put some praise music on and let the words sink into my soul. And moments when I can read my Bible and really focus on the love letter He’s written to us.
So you’ll understand why I’m excited about tomorrow. I’ve got a date with God—hours set aside just to be with Him. Do I have time to do this? No way! My gotta-get-it-done list is packed. But I’ve decided I’m going to focus on Him—and let Him become the keeper of the rest of my time.
How about you? Do you need to make a date with God? I can promise you He’ll accept your invitation!
Dear Father, please give us a love for You and a hunger to spend time with You. Remind us daily of what’s really important in our lives and help our time spent with You to overflow into the lives of others who need to know about our amazing God. Amen.
