The Magical String

I once read a story of a boy that had a magical ball of string.  An old witch gave the boy the string and said to him, "Do not touch it and time will pass normally. But if you wish time to pass more quickly, you have only to pull the thread a little way and an hour will pass like a second. But I warn you, once the thread has been pulled out, it cannot be pushed back in again."

So whenever he didn't wait to wait for something, he would pull a bit of the string and POOF!  time would pass.  He started by sitting in school one day and thought to himself, "Why wait for the day to be over?" He pulled a bit of the string and the day was over!  Then he started pulling the string for larger and larger amounts of time.  Graduating school-Poof!  Done with College-Poof!  Finding a wife-Poof!  Kids-Poof!

Before he knew it, he was at the end of his life and he greatly regretted wasting the string.  He realizes that without the mundane and without the hard times of life, we are just a shell of a person.  He robbed himself of life's richest moments and memories.

I don't have a magical ball of string.  I'm so thankful that I don't!  I would have pulled it far too many times by now.

But sometimes we are "pulling our string"  in other ways.

Can't wait till the weekend.

Won't summer get here?!

When will my baby walk, talk, **insert milestone here**?

Will this day never end!

When will my kids be grown?!

When will I lose this weight??

You get the idea.

My youngest son just turned 18.  Eighteen!!!!  When my kids were 2, 4, and 6 I thought this day would never get here!  I was so focused on the craziness of each day that some days I forgot to enjoy it.  To just sit and read and play.  To soak in every minute!

Time goes way to fast on it's own.  It's not bad to look forward to things in anticipation.  But you never know what God has for you today.  Don't be looking so far into the future that you forget to see what's in front of you.  What opportunities is God placing in front of me right now?  What people are near me now. Don't forget to enjoy the moment.  I look forward to this new chapter in my life!

I will try to not wish away the days.

You can read the full story of the ball of string here.