A Pocket of Time

A couple of our grandkids are staying with us this week.  After a morning of hiking and a tailgate lunch at the trailhead yesterday, a  pocket of time in the afternoon lay ahead of the kids and me.  My husband had a business meeting for an hour or so.

It is so easy when those pockets of time appear to fill them with the ordinary, indeed to just fill up the time.  Or we can seek to do something a little differently -- or approach that time with a different heart, a new attitude, a new direction for the commonplace.

I feel like through this past year, too often, I just filled up time instead of taking advantage of it.  Filling or fulfilling is not just in our power to do, but in our attitude toward it.

I was going to take the kids to a local playground for an hour, which I knew they would enjoy.  Or I could take the moment for something a little different.  We packed up the car with some old towels, plastic tubs, and an old colander, and went down to a branch of a little river near us.  The kids played in the cool water, walking among the slippery rocks, scooping up minnows, and exploring the river bank.  

We did not just spend an hour there, but invested a memory.

In almost every day, whether an hour or just a few minutes, God places a pocket of time before us.  Will we let it get nibbled away?  Or let Him guide us into it?

Am I so wrapped up in the ordinary, that I don't see the extraordinary?

Sing to the LORD

    a new song...

          Psalm 149. 1