SCRAPBOOK STATION

Newsletter - Vol. 2 Issue 12

Another year has flown by! We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our two grandchildren. They will be home in just a couple of days to spend a week with us. I know this will be the longest week ever. Tori is now talking a lot, and when we talk on the phone she has so much to say. Audrey is sitting up and is just the best-tempered baby. We have so much planned for them. Grandpa thinks that he is going to tire Tori out, but I think he is going to be surprised. She is a spitfire! Aren't the holidays so much fun with family! When the boys left the house, I missed being a mother. I missed the laughing, playing, and even the crying. Then He blessed me with grandchildren! I look forward so much to my children coming home. I have so much to be thankful for. We take so many things for granted. We get caught up with so many things that are not important, and the things that are important get put on the back shelf. Time is of the essence! Time with families. Sharing memories. Grasping on to every moment you can because time slips away quickly. Priorities! Someone sent this to Bruce & I and I believe it is for a reason, so I want to share this with you. It is called:

1000 Marbles

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Turning on the radio, trying to catch the latest news, I came across a call-in show that caused me to put down the paper and listen. The caller had one of those golden, made for radio voices, but he wasn't an announcer. He began telling a story of the 1000 Marbles to the host named Tom.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well, but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed you daughter's dance recital."

He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me to keep a good perspective on my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a thousand marbles. "You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on the average, folks live about seventy-five years.

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their lifetime. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by the time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had a thousand of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in my workshop next to the radio. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you, and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

After he ended the call there was silence. You could have heard a pin drop. He gave me something to think about. Instead of going off to the gym, I went upstairs, woke my wife with a kiss and said "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast. Along the way, let's stop at the toy store. I need to buy some marbles."

Where are our priorities! Is our time spent with our family quality time? Are we so busy running them around and going to extra activities that we forget to ask how they are doing? God gave us 24 hours in every day so He must have thought that that is enough time. I hope this year will be the resolution to spend more quality time with your families with the remaining marbles you have left.