Several people close to me have told me about their experience raising children. On one hand is how they can drive everyone nuts. However, before finishing the sentence they continue with how big of a blessing they are and how they wouldn’t change their life for anything. Still having none of my own, I do wonder what it would be like. I admire their ability to maintain focus so well with lives full of distractions. When I commented about all the noise, they tell me that I haven’t heard real noise yet! That little thing called tranquility in the house was forewarned would be done away with should children ever come my way.

I’ve also watched how these same people and others like them became involved in many things. As soon as the job let’s them out, it’s off to work on something else. Part time cook, caretaker, chauffeur, maintenance, landscape architect, and the list goes on. So many duties and seemingly never enough time to do them.

While it’s great to want to have the best of things for your family, remember your family is more important than the best of things. It’s hard to bounce from one priority to another. Just when we set our sights on the task at hand, two others come crashing into our space. Along the way, we put on a juggling act. Sadly, for many of us, we are not good jugglers. As such, we lose focus on what really matters. Instead of making our families feel like they are treasured each day, we pass by them as if they are in our way. We remain busy checking tasks off our “To-Do” lists all the while ignoring them.

Make a real To-Do list, in addition to your routine one. On this list, put what means the most to you. If you are a spiritual person, put it up there at the top. If you are a family person, put loving them on there and do something to show it every day. Don’t just summarize for the whole family. Do something specific for your spouse and for each child by themselves. This allows them to have your full attention. Doing all this will help you remember the reason why you are doing all that you do in the first place; for love and for family.