I have 601 weeks left until my oldest son Zeke graduates high school. I know that may seem like a lot, but when he was born I had 936 weeks. I\u2019ve already lost a third of my time with him.<\/p>\n
In his book Playing for Keeps<\/em>, author Reggie Joiner makes a great suggestion to help parents visualize the amount of time they have left with their kids. He suggests that you get a glass jar and fill it with marbles, one marble for every week you have left with your child. Each week, take a marble out and throw it away. It will serve as a tangible reminder that the few moments you have with your children are precious.<\/p>\n So, I have three glass jars on my nightstand. One for each of my boys. Each Sunday, I take out another marble and throw it away. I don\u2019t like it. It makes me a bit sad. But it\u2019s incredible motivation for me. Every time I\u2019m tempted to waste a day, watch a useless television show, or squander a weekend, I see the jars of marbles. Every time my boys want to play \u2018rough\u2019 and I\u2019m not feeling up to it, every time they want to throw the football outside even though it\u2019s freezing, every time they want me to take an interest in what they\u2019re doing even though I\u2019d rather be watching SportsCenter, I see the jars of marbles.<\/p>\n When I see the jars of marbles, it serves as a reminder that every week is precious. I\u2019ve already lost a third of my time with Zeke. How I choose to spend the remaining time with him is up to me. I want to make every marble count.<\/p>\n To help calculate how many weeks you have left with your kids, download the free Legacy Countdown app from the App Store.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have 601 weeks left until my oldest son Zeke graduates high school. I know that may seem like a lot, but when he was born I had 936 weeks. I\u2019ve already lost a third of my time with him. In his book Playing for Keeps, author Reggie Joiner makes a great suggestion to help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[491,529,594,870,1048,1186,1556],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family-matters","tag-food-for-thought","tag-graduation","tag-marbles","tag-parenting","tag-reggie-joiner","tag-what-im-living"],"yoast_head":"\n