TIME COUNTS

USGN article
by Terry Franklin
October 1998

Time seems to be speeding up on all of us. I spoke with my good friend Steve Chapman on the phone the other night. He was bemoaning the fact that they had dropped their youngest daughter off at college that day. He said it was awfully quiet around his house...

I thought to myself, "Well, I've got a few years before that 'Letting go' stuff." But I can see signs of it on the horizon...

One of the rights of passage for most men is a simple task-- mowing the yard. My oldest son Tyler just turned eleven. Old dad thought this would be the perfect time for that boy to do some manly work. We went out in the garage and I showed him how to check the oil, how to fill the fuel tank, and gave him about a hundred admonishments about staying away from that blade. I told him of the hundreds of people who had been maimed for life--their lives completely ruined (I may have stretched it just a bit) because of not being careful around a lawn mower.

So, I started her up. (Son, you gotta pull harder on that rope!) And off he went. I watched that boy grow up as he pushed the mower around the front yard. Man, it tore me up! I had to come into the house...

Dad's, we have a short time with our kids--MAKE THEM COUNT!

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©1998 Terry & Barbi Franklin.