Today is my oldest daughter’s birthday. She’s thirty-one. Hard to believe—it seems like yesterday that I was bouncing her on my lap, enrolling her in school, and watching her graduate with honors from high school and college. She was an amazing student. Most teachers loved her. In fact, out of all my kids, the teachers would always tell us, “Well, it would be nice if she’d talk a little more.” That was really the worst we ever got. There’s not much of a message in this Parent Minute, except this: don’t take the early years of your life for granted. Don’t spend so much time at work or traveling and miss those family moments—you’ll never get them back. The Bible says to train up a child in the way of the Lord. You can’t do that if you’re not there.

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 22:6., Ephesians 6:4