The One Sure Way to Multiply Your Time

Happy Friday! As one season is slipping into another, we are so thrilled to have our friend Abby McDonald here with us to share some words of encouragement about slowing down and savoring each moment. Help us to welcome Abby to the picket fence! 

When the doctor told me they recommended an ultrasound at 32 weeks, my first thought was, “Do I have time for this?” My son’s preschool pick-up was soon, and the procedure wasn’t scheduled at my last appointment.

I decided if they were quick, I could still make it in time. Less than fifteen minutes later, I was watching the life I’d carried for the past seven months.

Don’t blink.

I looked at the tiny figure on the screen, amazed at how different her features were after just twelve weeks. She was almost ready to make her entrance into the world. I ignored the growing pressure on my bladder and enjoyed every inch of her.

The tech noticed my discomfort.

“Don’t worry hon. We’re almost done.”

“Oh, I’m fine,” I said, shifting my position slightly.

Take your time. This moment will never come again.

After a few minutes, she finished up and wiped the sticky gel off my belly. I held a series of snapshots she captured, grateful to have a keepsake of this time.

Time is all we have in this life, isn’t it? But pregnancy and life in general can cause us to be in a in a constant flux of slow down and hurry up. As I waddled through those last couple of months before giving birth, my thoughts went back and forth between these two extremes.

I’m so tired of being pregnant. I can’t wait to meet our little girl.

Oh wait! The nursery isn’t ready. Slow down, baby. Just a little while longer.

A few days after my doctor’s appointment, my oldest son lost another tooth. It was his first one on the top and another milestone. I snapped a picture with my phone and thought it seemed only yesterday I was swaddling his newborn frame. Now I can’t pick him up without paying for it with back spasms.

In every moment I want to grab and freeze a while longer, I’m reminded that I can’t slow time. I can’t stop my kids from growing up or keep them in their toddler beds until they’re teenagers.

I can’t stop them from asking questions I am completely unprepared to answer like, “Where do babies come from?” or “Can I be in the delivery room when she’s born?”

I can’t stop a dear friend from moving away and seizing a job opportunity in another state. I wouldn’t want to.

And when the warm air turns brisk and the leaves turn vibrant shades of red and orange, I know I can’t slow their fall.

Time will not slow down, but I can.

I can stop and look people in the eye. I can put down my phone when someone is talking to me and listen to what they’re saying instead of rehearsing how I’ll respond. When someone seems distant, I can reach out instead of pretending nothing is wrong.

Time is all we have.

When you’re growing a little human inside of you, you’re made painfully aware of the ticking clock. Each kick and discomfort reminds you time is not only precious, but short.

I see countless articles on social media about ways to multiply your time, multi-task and get the most out of each second. But the longer I carry this baby, the more I see the truth.

The only sure way to multiply our time is to savor it.

It isn’t by rushing from one activity to the next or trying to do twenty things at once. It’s by being intentional, slowing down, and seeing the blessings right here in front of us.

The well-known passage from Ecclesiastes that beautifully describes the seasons of life and how there’s a time for each one.

“There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to be silent and a time to speak.

As I read the passage the other day, what stuck out to me is how the writer doesn’t say, “A time to rush through life. A time to multi-task.”

Because a life spent rushing isn’t a life at all.

Time is all we have, friends. Let’s spend it savoring the things that matter most.

Free Gift: Want to claim freedom from fear of never being enough? Make sure you stop by Abby’s blog to pick up your free download of The Daughter’s Manifesto.

About the Author: Abby McDonald is the mom of three, a wife and writer whose hope is show readers their identity is found in Christ alone, not the noise of the world. When she’s not chasing their two boys or cuddling their newest sweet girl, you can find her drinking copious amounts of coffee while writing about her adventures on her blog. Abby would love to connect with you on her blog and her growing Facebook community.