Dear Self,
There's much to do today, and a busy weekend lies ahead. However demanding your day or weekend seems, determine to not be too busy to spend specific quality time with your kids.
I don't think you'll get to the end of the day, and wish you had spent more time on Facebook, or an extra hour on the phone. You won't look back and regret not having the TV on more, or not spending more time demanding and ordering your kids around. It won't really even matter if the house is perfectly clean. You will, however, lay in bed tonight, and think of your little darlings asleep down the hall, and realize again that all the moments today have passed. The time spent, the words said: you can't get them back.
But there IS today, as long as our Lord gives it to us. Use what is given today deliberately. Make time to read to your kids today, look for the moment in the day to speak and show affirmation to each one specifically, and take time for tea. And, if unpleasantries and trials of the most difficult kind arise, use them deliberately as well.
“You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6:7)
Wherever. Whatever. Whenever. Make it count. Starting now.
Lovingly,
Your Self