In my home, in my relationships, I have a tendency to do stuff for people, rather than to do stuff with people. I’ll happily spend time cooking meals for them, or baking elaborate cakes for them, or rearranging closets for them, or creating organizational systems for them. Acts of love and of service, and those are good things. Clearly hot dinners and accessible closets are good things in themselves as well.
But the problem is when I stop there. Because those are the perishables about which Jesus is talking. Dinner, that’s perishable for sure . . . gone in twenty minutes. Maybe a couple of days if I made enough for leftovers. The closets? Well, we all know those weren’t going to stay the way I put them, no matter HOW great my new bin system was.
How can I serve God and the people around me in eternal ways? By giving them myself, not just my accomplishments. By focusing on how I’m loving God and the people he has put in my day-to-day life in all the ways you can’t admire on a plate or check off of a checklist or post on Instagram.
I can let my kids help in the kitchen, even though that makes everything go s-o-o-o-o m-u-c-h s-l-o-w-e-r. I can plan ahead and have dinner prepped, so I can stop what I’m doing when my husband gets home from work and I can greet him. I can take my mom to see that movie she wants to see. I can write my grandmother a letter, to tell her all the things I already told everyone on Facebook.
I get so caught up in how many things I can accomplish with my time that I overlook how important it is to to spend time in being, not just in doing. I forget to labor not ONLY for the perishable things of today, but also for things eternal. The things that really matter.
Let’s waste time on and with the people we love today. Let’s waste time with God, in prayer, in reading his word, before the blessed sacrament.
Kendra Tierney can be found blogging, homeschooling, and gestating Tierney baby number eight in Los Angeles, CA. You can find out more about her here.
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