How do you say “I love you”? Not how do you actually speak those three words (although that can be hard to do sometimes). But how do you show someone that you love them? Some people hold long embraces and say those impactful three words with sweet sincerity. Some shower gifts. Some go to great lengths to create an atmosphere of love or create unexpected surprises. All of these are great ways to show someone we love them.
But the best way to prove our L-O-V-E is by giving our T-I-M-E.
Time is our most precious commodity. None of us have enough of it. None of us can buy more of it. We value our time because time wasted can’t be recovered. And time continues to roll on whether we want it to or not. With so little free time, it becomes a real challenge to spend blocks of uninterrupted time with the people we love.
But when we do, the rewards are exponential.
We’re pulled in so many directions. Work. School. Kids. Family needs. Activities. Appointments. Errands. Most of us are running crazy every day of the week. There’s not enough time to sleep much less add anything else to the schedule. When do we have time to be still and enjoy face to face time and quality conversation with those we love?
In our culture of texts, tweets, email and Facebook, do we even know how to have face to face time with quality conversation?
It’s time to try.
We know how special we feel when someone takes time out of their day to spend time with us. Especially in our times of need. Especially when they’re not rushed and they genuinely want to see us and hear what we have to say. Or when they’re miles away but they call and ask questions and listen to our heart and offer encouragement. Spending time together is how we build bonds of love and trust. It’s how we share life. It’s how we get to truly know each other and understand our past hurts as well as our passions, hopes and dreams. It’s how we do life together and grow in sisterhood.
Through T-I-M-E. Uninterrupted time. Time focused on each other. Special time of sharing fun things and making memories. Regularly recurring blocks of time. Time spent loving, rejoicing, crying, hoping. Whatever the occasion may call for. Time together. Time we can never get back if we spend it doing something else.
It’s time to start making time for special people.
Our husband or boyfriend. Our kids. Our family. Our sisters. All of the people we think should understand most our lack of time. All of the people who suffer most because of our lack of time. Everything we do may be for them, but if we don’t have time to share with them along the way, we’ll have very little worth anything to celebrate at the end of the journey.
It’s time to show our love through T-I-M-E. Offer your most precious commodity to those who are most precious to you. Don’t just tell them you love them. Show it by committing your time to them today.
“This is how we know what love is: Christ gave His life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!” 1 John 3:16 (GNT)
May I pray?
Jesus, many of us feel starved of love. We want to love and be loved. And yet the reality is that we don’t spend quality time with others in order to build bonds of love and trust. Including the bonds of sisterhood. Help us, Lord, to reach out to others. Help us to make time and commit time to those we love. Including You. May our lives be transformed because of the quality time we spend with those we love and those we know who need help. Amen.
Q4U: How do you show your love to others?
This was a good reminder for me. Sometimes it is easy to forget that we can show love with our time. As an employee who gets paid hourly, I try to get as many hours in so I can afford things for my family. Sometimes my family needs my time more than they need the money that my job provides.
Great perspective – it really makes you think!