Capture the Moments

Marriage and family can be fun. Yes, there are many things that have to be worked at, but putting that aside, marriage is a wonderful journey with your best friend.

In the early years of marriage you have mornings of sleeping in, maybe lingering for a few more kisses and snuggles. Candlelit dinners that took hours to cook. The coziness of a small apartment. Keys always where you left them. Floors clean and picked up. There was plenty of ice cream for an entire month. No sticky hand prints to clean off walls or windows. Food in the fridge and cupboards. Nights of snuggling in front of a fire on the couch with each other. And driving in a cozy car for two.

Before long the pitter patter of little feet fill the home along with giggles and laughing of innocence. You find yourself stepping over countless teddy bears, Lego’s, and toys. Your late mornings turn into early morning demands. Meals are a little simpler in preparation and quiet conversations become busy conversations. You have a collection of homemade Christmas gifts, Father’s/Mother’s Day cards, drawings on the fridge, and school projects. You have frilly dresses and little bow ties floating around for church and holiday time. Ribbons and bows, bedtime stories, hunting and fishing trips. You grow each year with your children adding more and more to your home. Maybe a house or your cute little car becomes a mini-van. You know all the Disney princesses and probably can sing all the Disney songs from memory. You sing ABC and play patty-cake, Ring-around-the-rosie, and Duck Duck Goose.

And just as you greet your new little baby to this world you blink and they are teenagers. Cupboards now bear as they eat everything. Disney songs long gone and no more patty-cake. Now it’s borrowing the van to visit friends and keys always in different places. “Mommy play with me” turns to “You’re old and just don’t understand”. Meals are quick or non-existent as everyone has school and jobs. Frilly dresses, ribbons, bows, and little ties now turn to “I can dress myself and pick out my own clothes”. Handmade gifts become store bought gifts and life moves on.

Then you blink for just a second and your babies have graduated, grown up and moved out. Cars will be clean again. No more stepping on Lego’s, dolls, Match Box cars or crayons. Doors will be shut, there won’t be lights to turn off in every room. No more goodnight kisses or peeking in on sleeping children. Fewer tools will be lost, dishes cleaned and put away, and socks will miraculously find their mates. No more first days of school and early morning wake up calls.

As you can see, time flies by faster than you can imagine. Someday will come to every couple so, now is the time to cherish your moments together. Like Ephesians says, make the most of your time. Treasure the moments with just the two of you and hold onto those moments with your children. Give them your time and attention. Take pictures, keep handmade gifts, keep the “artwork”. You only have one of each child and none are the same. They will only be the age they are once, so capture each day.

The same goes for each couple. You are blessed each day for chances to create memories till death do you part. Lord willing if you can grow old and grey together each moment will fly by quickly. Love every moment good and bad, and thank the Lord for each other.

What “season” in life are you in right now? Are you making the most of this time?

Make an “us day” for you as a family or as a couple. Pack a lunch, take a camera and go somewhere and make memories. Let the kids draw pictures, tell stories and make the most of your time.