Family valued

I was reminded on this Mother's Day of the importance of family.  In my busy schedule it is easy to succumb to the pressures of work and its demands.  I was jolted when my oldest son gently asked if I would make an attempt to be more connected with my grandson.  His other grandfather who lived nearby died suddenly a year ago.  He has missed him and since I live 2000 miles away we see my grandson twice a year...maybe.  He needs a grandpa.  I love him dearly so this is not a task.

But it is a necessary dicicpline.

Armed with this information--all which I already knew--I recommitted to this privileged task which means I have to be intentional.  We had contact in several ways over the weekend--on the phone, via e-mail and I sent a card with a small gift to say, "thinking about you".

My mother will be eighty-eight years old in July.  She lives 60 miles away and I am fortunate if I see her once a month.  On Mother's Day, freed from my normal church responsibilities, my wife and I joined her at her church--our first visit in three years since a new pastor arrived.  We sat together and I felt proud to sit in the same row with my godly mother, the spiritual matriarch of that small church.  We ate lunch together with my extended family and were delighted that the television we were blessed to give her was something she deeply appreciated.

It was a joy to write my daughters-in-law and daughters congratulatory Mother's Day greetings.  They are a special group and are wonderful mothers to our eleven grandchildren.  My wife was thrilled by cards (and gifts) from her sons and telephone calls from them at day's end.

I am grateful for my family.  I am determined anew that they will be a priority in my life--before my work and its demands.  How this fleshes out daily is a challenge for me admittedly, but in the realm of things that matter most to me, they are what I truly value.