Today, I have the great pleasure of blogging from my balcony in Hilton Head, South Carolina. (Keep in mind that envy is a sin.) I’m looking out over an inviting turquoise pool surrounded by empty lounge chairs and green umbrellas. There’s nice eighties music being piped in from I’m not sure where, Barry Manilow, currently. Spanish moss hangs from the trees that reach up to a blue sky with light wispy clouds. Are you here with me?

Later today we’re going to go rent bicycles to ride around the island. That’s going to be our pace for the next few days. We’re going to be building memories with our kids once again. No one expects us to be anywhere to do anything. Just like that, responsibilities that usually keep our attention elsewhere are gone. Matthew and I can focus on each other and our kids.

I can remember the first time we took our oldest kid to the beach. We put him on a blanket on the sand, and he stayed right there. He didn’t like the feel of the sand. He’s eighteen now. He’s over that. He and our other two teens and a friend will likely take off today to do teen stuff. That’s okay. They’ll come back when they get hungry.

If it were up to me, our family would never go on vacations like this. Matthew is our vacation planner.  That’s just not my thing. Matthew realizes the importance of getting away as a family. To set aside time just for us to circle the wagons and have some forced family fun.

I like to travel with our kids now that they are older. It’s easier. But I also realize that time is marching on and that times like these will not always be here. Our kids will grow up, get married, and start their own forced family fun times. So I’ll treasure these times while they are here.

I think God likes it when we set aside time for important things. He was forever having the people of Israel do that. He wanted them not to forget the importance of certain times and certain events. For them it was training time for things to come. The same is true for us. In our busy-ness we can miss out on times when God is doing something in us and for us. We have to make ourselves stop. Slow down and pay attention. Time marches on and things won’t always be like they are now.

One of my favorite movie quotes comes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Ferris looks right onto the camera and says,

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you can miss it.”