"Summertime, and the livin' is easy..." that is an old song. Another one is "Those were the lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer". I grew up hearing those songs. And I'm sure there are Summer songs that you can relate to.

As a younger child/adult, I always looked forward to the end of another school year and the 3 or so months of "freedom" called Summetime. It marked a time when there were no more rigid schedules, such as getting up early and going to bed early. It was "freedom" for me - as I perceived it.

However, there were the years which my Summer schedule was "delayed" due to my inability to concentrate during the year. In order to advance to the next grade, I was required to attend Summer School. It was torture, but looking back at it - it was self-inflicted torture because I did not apply myself during the regular school year. During those times, I was envious of my friends who did not have to attend and could enjoy the freedoms that I should also be enjoying. It didn't seem fair at the time. How soon had I forgot about "goofing off" during the year.

There were some Summers where I did attend Summer ""School" - because I wanted to. I enrolled in music programs to help improve my music ensemble abilities. And in my very early years, my Grandmother enrolled me in the church next door to me - their vacation Bible School. Those were the more memorable and happy times.

As with myself, my kids, and I'm sure many others - we all heard the same phrase a couple weeks, maybe a month or so in the course of Summer - the same phrase "I'M BORED!" What happened to all the anticipation? Like I said, I'm sure we as parents have heard those same words. We only planned one big "vacation", meaning loading up the car, leaving the house, and venturing down the road to our vacation destinations. Again, I'm sure I'm not alone, when we heard the voices of our kids say the same thing, "ARE WE THERE YET?" And even, if there was downtime in the vacation (afterall, it is supposed to be restful for everyone; including parents who take time off work to spend time with family - and to wind down). Those same words were repeated while we, as parents just wanted to wind down and relax, "I'M BORED!". What we we supposed to do? Well, we probably handled it in a number of ways:
  • We gave them a list of things they can do (that didn't involve us, as parents)
  • We told them to wait xx minutes while we rested a bit, and sadly sometimes those xx minues never came.
  • We gave up on our rest and ventured out with the family.
Which ones to you think you fall into? Which do the kids still reminisce about now that they are grown up and families on their own? I would venture to guess it is the one that involved the entire family; where we, as parents sacrificed what we wanted in order to make the family happy. And the best thing ever that can happen to a parent is when those family Summer traditions carry on with their own families.

So, my question is how many times do we as children of our Father in Heaven "goof off" when we should be spiritually applying ourselves? How many times have we had to redo something in our lives through repentence so that we can "progress to the next grade"? We all look forward to downtime from time to time, but we can never do spiritual downtime. If we do this, we risk another one taking that downtime and leading us further and further into our spiritual downtime. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland stated, we can never check our religion at the door.

Our Summers can also be filled with more and more learning. The Mission statement of our Father in Heaven covers this, "The Gory of God is Intelligence". We never stop learning. It may sound corny, but one of my work mantras are: If I didn't learn at least one new thing at work, then I wasted my employers and my time. I truly believe this. Our Father (and Mother) in Heaven are our patient Eternal parents. If we find ourselves just going through day by day, our prayers become canned (we say the same things over and over again), we are in effect telling our Father in Heaven that, "WE ARE BORED". If we apply ourselves  and get into serious scripture study, in other words we immerse ourselves into the gospel, we should never be going through the canned prayers, or general motions of church. If we are really striving to magnify our callings, to do our home and visiting teaching, to help out with Ward service projects, etc. we can never say we are bored with our religion. "If ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me".

As the years advance, I find myself more and more thinking about what I have (and have not) accomplished in my life. I come to the realization that there are just some things that I will never accomplish, but its all okay. What isn't okay are the missed family opportunities that came up and I just wanted to enjoy MY own downtime. Or things that I regret, in retrospect - those things that I sorely wished I could turn back the hands of time and redo those things. I can remember my Grandmother in her twighlight years alway reminisching about the good times, and also remembering her loved ones who have passed away. She, just as I know and embrace the plan of salvation, and know that we will see our loved ones again - that death is only a portal from mortality to the next phase in our eternal progression. Although she never said it in her twighlight years, I could tell that she yearned for "home". And as the Summer of her life passed, she may have said in earnest, pleading prayer to her Father in Heaven, "ARE WE THERE YET?". We will all go through this. There is no escaping the fact that we all die. We will return to arms wide open of our Grandparents, parents, friends, and our Father in Heaven who will welcome us Home.

But until then, I will strive to enjoy every day of my Summer. I will live each day to the fullest, learning, growing, being happy, being content, and never being bored, but looking forward to the time, when it our time to ask, in our final breath, Are we there yet?

Continue reading at the original source →