You’re Not Missing It: Parenting in Light of Eternity

“Don’t blink! You might miss it!”

If there’s one thing I desperately don’t want to miss, it's my kids’ childhood. But it often feels like it is slipping through my fingers. One second, I have a tiny seven-pound baby and the next, a lanky-seven-year-old. 

How can I be more present? How can I live more “in the moment”? How can I capture every minute? If I don’t take a picture of the soft sunlight filtering through their towhead hair, is that memory gone forever? 

Often (probably when I look overwhelmed in the grocery store), older women will say things to me like “Savor this moment,” “It goes by in a flash,” or “Don’t blink!” I think sometimes these phrases are meant to encourage me (especially when things are hard) that time is fleeting, so be careful to be present in it. And that’s a helpful reminder. Ephesians 5:16 tells us to make “the best use of the time” we have been given.

But other times, I think the “don’t blink” sentiment comes from a place of sadness. Although the goal of parenting is to raise adults, almost every mom I’ve talked to says “it goes all too fast.” Their childhoods and our lives are but a vapor: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

Aching for Eternity

The brevity of motherhood can feel heartbreaking. But though we should be careful to steward the limited time we have with our kids, we don’t need to parent anxiously.

We serve an eternal God.[1] While we operate in time, the God who loves and calls us to follow him operates outside of it.[2] He created time[3] and every other beautiful and fleeting thing on this earth to point me to him[4]—who is eternally beautiful and all sufficient in himself.[5] He has placed eternity in our hearts[6] and formed us in his image with an innate desire to know him. When we feel desperate to hold onto our kids’ childhoods, we’re actually ultimately longing for something else—Someone our kids are intended to point us towards. 

Resting in God

When we feel frantic to “stop time,” we can remember that God loves us with perfect fatherly love. When we are both overwhelmed by the challenges of motherhood and distraught over how quickly our sweet kids are growing up, we can be comforted by the fact that God leads those who have young with tenderness.[7] His burden is easy and his yoke is light.[8] 

Yes, childhood is fleeting, but it is an opportunity to store up treasures in heaven that won’t fade away, as we love, serve, train, and disciple our children. Like the Israelites, we can talk about the things of God at home, at work, and on the road.[9] We can run to our God and Father in prayer, not just once or at mealtimes, but throughout the day.[10] We can show our kids that he is the One who is breathtakingly lovely and fully worthy of all our adoration and praise—not the passing pleasures of this earth. 

Our God is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He never changes. But Lord willing, we will. As we are molded and shaped into God’s image, we will more clearly see the glory of God and be swept up into awe and praise. And this is our hope for our children as well—that God will grow them along in the faith through childhood and far beyond, until that day when we are all brought into his presence.

My children are a very good gift from God. And their childhood is breathtaking. It’s worth taking a million pictures and canceling some of my other plans. I do want to strategically soak up this beautiful, limited, fleeting time with them. But not because I think the best days are passing me by. The best days now point me forward to a heaven that’s even better. And the hardest days remind me of the grace of God and the hope of all our sorrows being one day swallowed up in the joy of his presence.[11] 

When my life is all used up, I will go to be with the One who is far greater and lovelier than anything we could possibly think of or imagine. He is so beautiful. So good and so worthy to be praised. I don’t need to be anxious about time. The best is yet to come. Everything lovely and delightful now is just a foretaste of heaven.

I’m not going to stress too much about blinking. 

[1] Psalm 90:2 

[2] Isaiah 57:15

[3] Isaiah 40:28

[4] Psalm 19:1-4

[5] Romans 11:36

[6] Ecclesiastes 3:11

[7] Isaiah 40:11

[8] Matthew 11:30

[9] Deuteronomy 6:7

[10] 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

[11] Psalm 16:11; 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 21:3-5