"Seize the Day" (and the irresistably quiet night)

Last night I stayed up late planning Research Paper assignments for the two big kids. Once I was done, I should have gone to bed, but the house was just too irresistably quiet not to spend some time doing some uninterrupted web surfing. So, I began perusing ALL my favorite blogs, adoption yahoogroups, etc. As any late night web surfer knows, one blog leads to another, and before you know it, the wee hours of the night have passed. I know the internet has a great potential for evil and yuck, but I am constantly amazed at how it provides me with a network of invaluable information --I absolutely can not imagine adopting or homeschooling without it (was there such a thing as adoption and homeschooling before the internet :o)?)

One of the blogs I infrequently visit is Doug Phillips' blog at Vision Forum. Although I don't agree with exactly everything Doug espouses, I do think his vision and voice for the family is something desperately needed in today's society. Last night (or should I say, this morning), I stumbled across the following post on Doug's blog--I hope to make "Seize the Day" the battle cry of each and every morning!

"Seizing the Day for Our Children"
by Doug Phillips at Vision Forum
http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/2007/12/3285.aspx

My children are growing so quickly. And so are yours.
Today, the fair-haired
little boy is tugging at Daddy’s leg, but tomorrow he is a young man of stature,
strength, and potential who will soon be a family leader in his own right. The
pig-tailed little girl who is so generous to Daddy with her butterfly kisses
will suddenly emerge as a woman whose heart will be given to the husband
prepared by God to take Daddy’s place as the human love of her life.

Our time as parents of children is slipping away from us. Each day that passes
without a self-conscious determination on our part to invest great spiritual
resources into their lives and to equip them is a day lost. It is a day that
will never be recovered.

What will be our message to the little boy and
girl? How will we use the brief moments God has given to us to equip them to
stand holy, pure, hopeful, and determined through the cultural tumult of our
budding twenty-first century?

It is the mission of Vision Forum Ministries
to encourage and inspire the Body of Christ to make this time — this season of
precious parenthood — count for all of eternity.

It is why the words of my dear but now departed spiritual son Michael Billings, in his sermon to the future fathers of his own generation, ring so true: “Seize the day.”