The Gift of Time

We often overlook a gift we can easily give to others—the gift of time. I have found this to be a lasting gift, something that has a significant return on investment. It delivers tenfold. 

I see it in my children, who are grown now. I see the benefits of time well spent with them when they were young.

I remember a wonderful lady named Johanna. A Dutch woman I met at the grocery store. She admired my young daughter sitting in the grocery cart. Johanna and I were strangers that day, but God already knew about our meeting. 

You see, I was a young mother who had just relocated with my husband and daughter to a small rural northeastern town. The kind of mountain town that did not yet have a 911 emergency line, and we lived in a neighborhood that had black bears roaming around. And there was plenty of snow, like two feet.

I was longing for a gentlewoman friend in my life, so far from home. I needed occasional childcare for my daughter, but I knew so few people, and I felt alone. So, I prayed for someone, someone I could trust. Then came Johanna. She and I struck up a conversation in that grocery store, and I was immediately drawn to her Dutch accent and smiling, warm face. 

We became friends, and soon, she and her husband came to our house for birthday parties, and we went to theirs for some tea and watching of birds. Johanna sang Dutch lullabies to my daughter and was always up for games.

She introduced us to making Strawberry Jam. So, one sunny summer day, we went to her cousin's strawberry farm to pick strawberries and make jam. It was a wonderful, memorable time for my daughter and me. 

I was able to pass this gift of making strawberry jam to my children and my friend, Jennifer. As you will see in Part II of my New Life Series, Jennifer and I talk and laugh about our Strawberry Jam-making adventures. 

Thank you, Johanna, for being a wonderful woman of God, loving our family, and for your gifts of time.