
Beckett pulled at my jean shorts as I tried to quickly brush through Audrey’s tangled hair to pull it into a fast ponytail–mumma up he whimpered in exasperation. A teething boy has little patience for a hurried momma who isn’t able to carry him around. Audrey winced as I worked on her hair. When I was done, I moved her out of my way in order to get to taming Charlotte’s bedhead more quickly.
We were working to get out the door to pick blueberries together–something I love doing with my kids–and, I had a certain time in my mind that I was hoping to leave. I brushed aside my people and their feelings several times in an effort to stay on my schedule.
Did you know, when speeding 10 miles over the limit while taking a 15 mile trip in a 45 mph speed limit area, one saves about 3.64 minutes overall? If you’re going 65 mph, you save 2.5 minutes–considering the risks both in safety & possible tickets/fines, it really isn’t worth it to drive 65 mph on your way to that meeting for which you were hoping to arrive earlier.
I looked in my rearview mirror as we drove to the blueberry farm and neither of my girls were smiling–they both sat with their heads slumped to the side a bit, Charlotte looked defeated even. And I knew, speeding those 10 extra mph through our morning wasn’t worth it. We got out the door by 8:45 a.m., but I we could’ve left by 9 with Beckett satisfied by a few more minutes on my shoulder, and Audrey feeling like a treasured person not a thing that was in my way, and Charlotte would have been sitting in the back singing along to the music rather than looking defeated because I didn’t have time in the last 30 minutes to hear her.
Mommas, sometimes I become so focused on my goal, my timetable, my commitments that I speed 10, even 20 miles faster than what is best for my people. And you know what? It is not worth it–Jesus did not rush past people. In Mark 10, Jesus’ disciples were a lot like me on blueberry picking morning, they had an agenda and figured Jesus was far too busy for little children. Little children don’t fit neatly into timetables and schedules–they’re messy, needy, wily little creatures, and yet, our King said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14)
The 2.5 minutes you might save speeding through your time with your people isn’t worth it–and the consequences will build up over time worse than speeding tickets. Mommas, let us look to our Savior’s behavior and slow down to our people’s speed limit.