Moment on moment

It seems as though
    there is never enough time
         to do all the things
              we have to do.
Or is there?
When I got to work today,
      I realized
           that my shoes weren't shined.
I bent over to shine them at home this morning,
      but I heard my little son crying
          before I got the lid off the polish.
So I went to him
     and picked him up
           and dried his teears
                  and gave him love.
Then I didn't have time
       to go back and shine my shoes.
I had to leave.
That's okay.
Some day my shoes will be in a scrap heap
      and no one will care
            whether they were ever shined.
But the love I gave my son this morning
    will live on in him
         and those he passes it on to.
No, I'm not embarassed
       that my shoes weren't shined.
They're a sign that I'm learning
        to keep first things first.
The illusion
       that there will be sometime in the future
             when all things will come together for us
                    interferes with our fully living today.
If we aren't living fully now,
       we never will.
The only time ever have
         is the present.

-The intro in John Giles  Keeping First Things First

I picked up this book a few weeks ago, and read through several of the prose and knew it would not be one I sold.  At first I thought it was related to First Things First by Covey- but I don't think it is.  The prose are beautiful and the stories thoughtful.
The lines...
But the love I gave my son this morning
         will live on in him
               and those he passes it on to.
and
If we aren't living now
      we never will.

Are particularly poignant because all of life is a string of moments - what we live, we become, our children become, what is poured into them and what they live. 

My daughter is preparing for her oral defense of her Senior discertation and she sent us a little invite.  It was sweet and thanked us for our part in her education.  It made me smile and I said, were you required to write that, she response, "Yes, but it's true."  I reflect. Almost 17 years of moments are heaped up, educating her toward towards someone, towards God.  Our attempts and moments were obviously feebly done and imperfectly executed but always and ever under the grace of a loving Lord.  Life doesn't wait for perfect, it happens, as God calls you to Himself -you head, broken and fallen, towards Christ and the journey  is a wonderful, tragic, beautiful, mirery tangle of moments .

What can I give You, Lord?
The very energy I use,
      the very thought processes I use
          to ask that questions
              are a gift from You.
Should I give You all that I am
      I would merely be returning
            what You gave me.
- Giles p.39

For in Him, we live and move and have our being. - Paul quoting Aratus, Greek poet