Give your children the gift of a Children's Hour

As most of you now know in August we lost our four year old grandson to a sudden and unexpected accident but we spent many wonderful hours with him and his siblings and parents in his 1047 days here on earth and have thousands of memories, videos and photos to show it. We miss him and this article is a wake up call to other parents and grandparents to take time with your children because tomorrow might not come.

Enjoy your children while you can for you never know a time or day when it might be the last time;

This is dedicated to my Grandson four year Old Gerrin who passed away August 19th suddenly with no warning or expectations. One moment he was a laughing happy little boy, climbing and playing and the next he had fallen to his death,. We miss and mourn him; I was planning and prepared to make Chocolate Chip Cookies with him that evening the bowl and chips were out and ready and he was to come stay with me that evening with 3 of his other siblings only he died instead and our hearts are broken. So I am writing this for other parents and grandparents who are so involved with making the Almighty Dollar, with materialism, and keeping up with the Jones, looking good and being hot and sexy that you forget the little things which are more important in life.

Thankfully our family did not do that, Though his time was short on this earth we have thousands of photos and video of our doing things together as a family and fun things, We worked and played hard and took time to be with the grandchildren and still do. We are on a fixed limited income of under $20,000 per year but we do things, plan and save for it and so we have lots of things to remember Gerrin with. He loved life and living and had lots of big dreams which he has not had post-phoned for awhile and I am going to tell you why along with why you need to spend a lot more time with your children and grandchildren as much as able and take photos, pictures and laugh and love. I wish we had spent even more time than we did and I wish Gerrin could be here still but we were blessed to have had him all of the 1047 days we did have him. He would have been five October 5th, on his 5th birthday his four sister, baby brother and two cousins sent 30 balloons with a tiny plastic helicopter up into the atmosphere for him. Then we cried and sang in choked voices Happy Birthday. It was not the birthday party we had all been planning but it was what was left to us. Then we blew bubbles and his little 17 month old brother chased them with delight.

Are you a parent or grandparent caught up in the whirlwind of going to work, running to the store and buying a lot of unhealthy convenience foods, popping a pizza in the oven as you run a short errand while talking on the cellphone and leaving notes for your kids what is for dinner, kiss see ya later. Getting up and grabbing a power energy bar for breakfast and stopping for a Mocha or Latte en-route to work? Do you spend maybe 30 minutes per day with your kids as you make phone calls, fix a quick microwave meal and run to the Fitness center or some club meeting or business dinner? Are you tired, and see your kids on the weekend sometimes when other things are not demanding your time and attention? Are you so involved with church and being a “Good Christian” A good Samaritan” your neglecting your family? Is working two and three jobs what you do to put your son or daughter through college? Or saving for a good retirement? A new Car, Computer, Big Screen T.V or exotic get away vacation? If so your are the “Cat’s in the Cradle”http://www.birdsnest.com/catcrad.htm parent.

Who is raising your child? Day care workers? Who spends time interacting with them, reading, coloring, playing, teaching you, grandma, a babysitter, day care workers? What do you pay for day care? What does it cost you in gas, insurance for your car, cell phone, work clothing, lunch out, make up, hair saloons and your morning stop Latte or Mocha run? Why? Why do you really need a second or third job? What if the son or daughter your working to help put through college in all your busyness died tomorrow? Was spending all that time away worth it? Do you take time to read your child a book, color a picture or admire his art work and put a bouquet of dandelions in a cut crystal vase and declare they are the best and most beautiful bouquet of flowers you ever got? Do you stop to watch a sunset with your child or a rainbow after a thunderstorm? Do you dance in the rain and laugh and run through muddle puddles?

Do you take time to really enjoy your family, your life with them? Take time to click on this link and tell me if you are trying to reach the station or living life. http://digg.com/people/The_Station_by_Robert_J_Hastings_2 Children are a gift from God for us to enjoy for just a little while. Every moment should be precious to you with them. I would give anything to have Gerrin alive and well and home but I also know we as his grandparents and also his parents we spent time with him baking cookies, reading, playing in the dirt, going on hikes and taking pictures of pretty sunsets, flowers and living life, we ate ice cream and we laughed and sang and danced and ran through muddle puddles. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about the Children's Hour

http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/The_Childrens_H.htm Every parent and grandparent should have a Children's hour or even more to spend with the most precious gift any parent can have or grandparent.  I hope you have a children's hour set aside no matter what or who else demands your time to be with your children to interact with them, listen to them, teach them, love them.   If you don't examine your schedule to make that time.  The only other more important time is that in which you spend with God in prayer, mediation or study.

I can take comfort in that and comfort that Gerrin is right now with Jesus in the most safest most loving environment he can ever be in and that one day we shall be with him again. Gerrin was a wonderful gift and still is, yes we miss him but we are happy for the Gift of him and the time we had so far. Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth.

Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:3-5 (NKJV) Forget the college education if it robs your children of time spent with them in the here and the now for you never know how long you really have. So he or she might not have the best college. Who cares as long as they are loved, and happy. Ask almost any child and they will tell you I would rather have mom or dad home doing things with me than their working so much all the time. Enjoy life and their life while you can for tomorrow might be to late.