play redeeming time
I think more than anything, Play has the power to grow gratitude. As I’ve begun to embrace the gift of play, I find myself constantly reminded of just that…. play is a gift. Life is a gift. Playing baseball in the yard is a gift… I CAN because today I have breath and legs that hold me and an arm that can grip a ball and a child that can swing a bat. Play is just one more rock in our personal Gilgals….
We support a couple of compassion children in the Dominican Republic… it’s been a sweet way to love on a child I may never meet… but lately I find myself thinking about Bernice’s mom. I find that I pray perhaps even more for her mom than I do for this sweet 11 yr old girl. As I’m pushing my little ones in swings at the park, I wonder what Berenice’s mom is doing.. I wonder if she’s ever had the privilege of just playing with her children.. or is she too busy hauling water and cooking food over an open fire and carrying laundry to the river… too busy just keeping her family ALIVE to play?
Conversation with mom one summer’s afternoon… “I wish I had two little reasons to spend the day outside in the sunshine again.”
If nothing else, play reminds us that it is a GIFT to be alive.
Play is kind of like the flip flops in the shoe closet… a reminder that this season is fleeting.. I can’t stop thinking about Laura’s beautiful poem that captures those last minutes of life. It reminds me that life on this side of Heaven is short no matter how many years we clock here on this earth. IT’s so cliche, but look at a gravestone and remember life is just a dash. Life with preschoolers is even shorter.. a dot upon that dash. Life with children under our roof is a mere blip on that dash.. and somehow remembering that and accepting life as a gift makes play feel more inviting, more sacred.
I know it’s hard to imagine w/little ones hanging on you all day, but there may come a day when YOU are begging them for a little time.. do you want to play a game with me? How about staying home on Friday night? I’ll pop popcorn!….
Just like flip flops are stashed away at summer’s end, our seasons of child-like play will be traded for schedules and peers and date nights and college trips…
As we play, we offer our attention and our EARS….. play involves LISTENING: “ my parents always listened to my tales like they’d never heard anything so amazing before..”
Josh when we are playing go fish at 5 am last week, “I love this.. because nobody else is talking to you, Mom. Just me.”
Our kids have their own stories.. part of play is listening to those (watch as Hannah and her friend navigate play.. How about this.. lets pretend that.. i know, what if….) “This is a privilege I think we parents often forget is ours until it is lost. Our children have their own stories to tell, you know. “ Woodlief, Somewhere More Holy
When it comes to matters of the heart, you can’t command the heart, you’ve got to woo it. It’s our job as parents to woo the hearts of our kids so that they want to listen to us... Ron Luce, Recreate
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Play opens a window...
story of trying to get into old abandoned house.. climbing up on junk and putting a big limb in the window to hold it open enough to climb through…
Play is like that limb… We are wise to grab the stick while we can…
when they want you to do something with them, even when you would prefer not to, do it anyway, and your child will connect with you on a deeper level and will be more prone to openess to you. … the window to your child’s heart will most likely open up when you’re busy with something… luce
My firstborn, 13, has always demanded most of my time.. I was his playmate from birth.. thought I’d never see the day when he wasn’t following me around with his next great idea, a boardgame, a book, a soccer ball… doesn’t invite me to play that much anymore.. but so far, his heart is still open a crack to me.. I think it may be because of all the time we spent playing and dreaming and imagining together …..I became a secure ally in those days of play…
Play creates security. It sends the message that everything is okay.. God’s got things under control. When things are falling apart, play disappears…. remember going to my cousin’s house on the day of their brother’s funeral.. weirdest part to me as a 7 yr old child was that nobody wanted to play with me… no toys strewn across the floor, no games of hide and seek… just quiet, stiff, uncomfortable sitting…
Larson: We have a capable and loving heavenly Father who carries the world on His shoulders so we don’t have to. When, amidst the stresses of life, we play and laugh and sing with our children, we send them the strong message that ultimately we believe that God is in control and that He is faithful.
We live in trying times, and our culture moves at an unrelenting pace. Our kids witness these realities every day, and it’s unsettling to them to say the least. Therefore, when we have faith to step away from our very important pressing responsibilities and are willing to engage in the fun stuff of life, we send the message to our kids that everything is going to be all right.
