Being there

On the way to work yesterday morning I listened to James Dobson interview one the employees of Focus on the Family.  The talked about a book the employee had written about Paul Harvey titled Good Day! The Paul Harvey Story.  Paul Harvey sounds like a good guy and the book might be a good candidate for Christian, Kelly, and I to read aloud together.  The thing that caught my attention, though, was comments that were made about how how Harvey had not really given a lot of time to his son as a small child.  Rather, he had dedicated his time to advancing his career.  I have thought about that a lot.  Really, our little family has always spent a lot of time together.  I go to work, come home, and virtually all the rest of the time we spend engaged with each other on some level or another.  It is the “some level or another” thing that I work about.  When I am not careful, the level of engagement, even when we are in the same house can be very small.  Dobson told a story about a boy whose father had come home from work every night, gone into his home office, shut the door, and stayed there to work the whole evening.  The boy remembers sitting on the floor in front of the closed door when he was three or four with his hand down by the crack, wiggling his fingers with the hope that his Dad would see them and say something to him.  It made me truly want to be there for my entire family in body, mind, and spirit–not just the kids, but for Lorena, too.