{"id":635,"date":"2013-01-06T19:39:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T00:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/time-in-a-bottle\/"},"modified":"2015-06-26T18:02:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T22:02:23","slug":"time-in-a-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/time-in-a-bottle\/","title":{"rendered":"“Time in a Bottle”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

                                              \u201cTime in a Bottle\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
                                                  <\/div>\n
                                                               Donna Reish<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you<\/p>\n

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you<\/p>\n

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with<\/p>\n

<\/span>Time. It\u2019s such a precious commodity. Something that those of us who have been parenting, say, for thirty years, with at least six more years of \u201ckids at home\u201d time, have come to  <\/span>understand the preciousness of. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

You know the whole \u201cEnjoy them now \u2018coz they\u2019ll grow up too fast!\u201d (Or worse yet, \u201cEnjoy them now \u2018coz soon they\u2019ll be preteens back talking you and making your life miserable.\u201d Sadness\u2026) Anyway, I remember people telling me all the time that time would go fast\u2026and I never believed them. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

However, during our early parenting years (the first fifteen of them), my husband worked a job that took him out of the house sixty to seventy hours a week at least fifty weeks a year. Because of that, while we didn\u2019t understand that our kids really would \u201cgrow up so fast,\u201d we came to put a real value on time. We learned to use it wisely, to be efficient, and to \u201cspend\u201d it on the most important things to us\u2014our kids, marriage, and God. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Time is so similar to money\u2014yet so different than money. Like money, once it (i.e. today) is spent, it is gone\u2014never to be retrieved again. Like money, there is only a certain amount of it\u2014and we always wish we had more of it. Like money, it can be \u201cspent\u201d  <\/span>foolishly or wisely, invested or squandered, used for good or for evil. Like money, it is valuable and sought after.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Unlike money, we all get the exact same amount of it. One of my pet peeves is to hear someone say, \u201cI don\u2019t have time for __________.\u201d Maybe I\u2019m just too literal, but, honestly, we all have the same amount of time to begin with. Granted, some of us have predetermined \u201ctime expenses\u201d\u2014such as a large family, an ailing parent, or other way in which our time must automatically be utilized. In that way, we don\u2019t really all have the same amount, of course, because those people\u2019s time is already partially earmarked. However, it is probably more accurate to  <\/span>say, \u201cI have already allotted my time elsewhere, so there\u2019s not enough left for ______.\u201d (Okay, that\u2019s getting picky\u2026but we all know people who waste A LOT of time\u2014then say  <\/span>that they do not have time for this or that.)<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019m somewhat of a \u201ctime freak.\u201d You know how some people just really seem to love money\u2014and want more and more of it? Well, that is me with time. Every year when it\u2019s time to \u201cspring forward\u201d and move our Indiana clocks up one hour, I go through the house ranting that \u201csomeone just stole an hour from me\u201d and \u201cwe should do something\u2014I just had an hour stolen,\u201d etc. etc. (To be fair, when we \u201cfall backwards\u201d and gain an hour, I also squeal with delight that \u201csomeone just gave me an hour\u201d\u2014\u201cI can\u2019t believe that I have been given a whole extra hour!\u201d And yes, this tradition drives my family crazy!) This afternoon, when my family pulled out to go watch football, I looked at the clock and did my mental math, fell back on the bed and said aloud gleefully, \u201cI have been given four precious hours to do whatever I want to do!\u201d (That\u2019s not really true because this week I start  <\/span>teaching writing to seventy-four students, so I have some definite \u201cpredetermined time expenses\u201d in my life right now!) But yeah, I\u2019m crazy about time.  <\/span>I love clocks, hourglasses, and time pieces. I have timers in six drawers\u2014and the most used app on my phone is definitely my timer!<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Strange time attachments aside, what does time have to do with \u201cCharacter Training From the Heart\u201d (our new blog name and seminar name) or \u201cPositive Parenting\u201d (our former name)? So many of our New Year\u2019s resolutions, family goals, relationship needs, household jobs, and work tasks could be accomplished much better simply with better time management skills. A funny difference between time and money that we often do not consider is that of \u201cstolen money\u201d or \u201cstolen time.\u201d If someone broke into our car and stole our billfold (and a hundred dollars), we would be outraged. We had been \u201crobbed\u201d\u2014some of our precious commodity of money taken from us. We had plans with that money. We were going to pay a bill or buy some needed item for our kids. But now that money is gone\u2014stolen.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

However, we continually allow time robbers to rob us of our time\u2014without being outraged or trying to put a stop to it. We purposely have chosen not to have a television or game system for most of our parenting years. When people asked us (especially many years ago with several kids at home and homeschooling, etc.) how we got so much done, we only needed to say, \u201cWe don\u2019t have a television.\u201d And they nodded\u2014they knew exactly how we got so much done.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not saying that anything fun should be omitted from your life (my family is at our oldest son\u2019s house watching football and when they return, my husband and I are going dancing!), but I am saying that we can\u2019t complain about not having enough time, we can\u2019t wonder why we can\u2019t get certain things done, we can\u2019t wish for more hours with our kids and spouse\u2014if we let time robbers continually steal them from us (the hours, not the kids!).<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

We would all love to be able to \u201csave time in a bottle\u201d like the old Jim Croce song says. We would all love to \u201cmake days last forever\u201d sometimes. But as the song says, that can\u2019t happen\u2014and \u201cthere never seems to be enough time to do the things we want to do\u2026.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

So what do we do to \u201cget more time\u201d? What do we do to get more accomplished? What do we do to have more time with our kids? Tune in later this week—for some \u201cTimely Tips\u201d\u2014things that we have found to work for us in the areas of time management and saving that \u201ctime in a bottle.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

P.S. For those of you who are nostalgic for old music, like I am, I\u2019ll put the Youtube link below to that song. Take a look at the words—they really are poignant when it comes to parenting. And no, I am not just fond of this song because it is an absolutely perfect Viennese Waltz song! Smile\u2026. <\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fyTfbtZeGeU<\/span><\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                              \u201cTime in a Bottle\u201d                                                                                                                  Donna Reish If I could save time in a bottleThe first thing that I’d like to doIs to save every dayTill Eternity passes awayJust to spend them with you If I could make days last foreverIf words could make wishes come trueI’d save every day like a treasure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[630,628,643,488],"tags":[330,278,280,283,316,69,96,39,275],"yoast_head":"\n"Time in a Bottle" - Character Ink<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/time-in-a-bottle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Time in a Bottle" - 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