“Life moves pretty fast…if you don’t stop and take a look around every once in a while…you could miss it.”  -Farris Bueller

Personal story…for most of my childhood and adolescent life, I had very little sense of urgency.   I wasn’t a kid who played a lot outside or was very good at sports.  I was really good at playing video games, watching a lot of movies, and not spending time enjoying and living life.  Growing up I was overweight, I was a couch potato, and I watched life pass me by.

It wasn’t until I was in my later years in high school and college that I realized life is a gift.  Life is meant for us to enjoy.  I spent many years in my young life wasting my youth doing nothing.  It took almost half my life to learn life is not meant to be spent being miserable and not living life on purpose.

Here’s the honest truth…we ALL spend time in that similar situation in life.  We all have a period of time in our lives when we are watching life pass us by.  We know full well that we are not enjoying and living life to the fullest.  Maybe that is your situation now.

“Life isn’t about the number of breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away.”  -Will Smith – Hitch

I have always heard that when you have kids life hits the fast forward button.  Before kids, I didn’t get that.  However, now that I have kids I can tell you it is absolutely true.

I can’t explain it.

Time moves so much faster when we have kids.  I have no doubt if you have kids; you are probably nodding your head “yes” as you read this.

We remember the day they are born.  What seems like an instant, we go from potty training to high school graduation?  Every parent can attest that time moves way too fast.

We start asking questions like:

“What happened to the time?” 

“If I had it to do over again, what would I do differently?” 

“Did I savor every memory and take advantage of every moment or did it pass me by?”

The main takeaway from today’s blog is to not wait for the right moment to create lasting memories…it’s to create the moments to make those lasting memories.

Your kids don’t care how much money you make.

They don’t care what kind of car you drive.

They don’t measure love in gifts and materialistic items.

They measure love by the amount of time you spend with them.

Time is the true lasting measure of love for our kids.  If you are going to invest in something…invest in making memories.

Invest in the quality time.  I promise, it will pay dividends.

We have some amazing dads who are involved with The Good Dad Project Community.  I wanted to point out two rock star Dads in particular….Kyle Kettner and John Gorman.

Kyle Kettner:

I have known Kyle for seven years.  I knew Kyle before the birth of his daughter Jersey Rose.  Even before the birth of his daughter, he was a man of purpose.  There aren’t many guys out there that would dress up as a king for an afternoon tea party.  Kyle took a tea party to a whole new level.

Here is the main takeaway…

When Jersey is 18 years old, she won’t remember what she got for a present on her fifth birthday.  She won’t remember what Santa brought her for Christmas when she was five.  However, she will forever remember this moment with her dad.

She will be 50 years old and she will have these amazing memories and photos.  She may not remember Dad fixing the sink or her car…but she will remember Dad fixing her hair.  Tell me that isn’t priceless?

 

John Gorman:

I have known John for 3 years.  John didn’t have the best example growing up of what a father should be.  In fact, he had quite the opposite.  Many of us (me included) came from a childhood where we had a strong negative example.  However, like many amazing Dads, we either learn what to do or what not to do by example.  John has been such a positive example in his boy’s lives.  If you know John, you know he instills manners and respect.  He doesn’t hesitate to dress up as a superhero when going to see a movie with the family.  He doesn’t miss a chance to take his boys fishing.  He disconnects from work completely on weekends to focus on their lives and their activities.

To wrap up…the main take away from this is to make your time with your kids memorable.  It doesn’t take a lot of money.   It is truly all about taking a “normal situation” and making it memorable.

Isn’t that true with anything in life?

If you have photos like this…please send them our way.  We would like to feature you in our next blog article.  Send them to:  thegooddadproject@gmail.com

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Thanks for all your support,

Larry