Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. – Psalm 127:3, King James Version (KJV)

In his book 30 Lessons For Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans, Karl Pillemer reported the following advice regarding parenting:*

What if there was one course of action you could take that would create loving relationships with your children, serve as an early warning system for problems they are having, and lead to a lifelong bond with them? According to the experts, there is: spend more time with your children. And if necessary, sacrifice to do it. In our hectic and driven society, parents look endlessly for programs, gimmicks, and therapies to improve their relationships with their children. But our elders tell us that there is one great contributor to lifelong closeness for which there is no substitute: your time.

…your kids don’t want your money (or what your money buys) anywhere near as much as they want you. Specifically, they want you with them…It’s not really the activity…it’s the shared time. In off moments during whatever the activity may be, there’s time to talk, to share confidences, to connect. And in those activities, the miracle of real communication sometimes occurs…Time spent with children is critical for another reason: it serves as a key early warning system for emerging problems.

The more I talked to the experts about child rearing, the clearer it became that the quality of relationships with children is directly proportional to the amount of time spent together.

Not only does time spent with children work for earthly parents, time spent with children works for our Heavenly Parent. It is through time spent together that God builds loving relationships with His children. It is also through time spent together that God corrects troubling behavior early on, enabling His children to live the best life possible. The irony of the Heavenly Parent-child relationship, though, is that time spent together isn’t dependent on our Parent’s willingness to spend time with us. It’s dependent on our willingness to spend time with Him.

God is always available. We, sadly, are not. We are the culprits in allowing all sorts of things to distract us from that which is most needful for our souls: spending time with God. Spending time with God includes a daily devotion time, but it had better not be limited to it. A five to fifteen minute devotion time does little to combat the onslaught of evil that all day every day comes our way. Spending time with God also should include an attitude of constant prayer, praise, and thankfulness in our minds and hearts. When you see a stranger pass by at a distance, pray for his or her soul. When you witness a beautiful sunset, thank God for sharing His artwork with you. When you hear a horrible report on the news, ask God to help those in need. God can, wants to be, and should be at our side during every moment of every day, but it is up to us to invite Him to join us.

It’s not quality time – five to fifteen minutes of devotion time – that will build our relationship with God. It’s quantity time – our devotion time PLUS the rest of our day. There is no lack of opportunities to pray, to praise The Lord, and to thank Him for His blessings. We just simply need to seize them.

Will you?

*Excerpt From: Pillemer, Karl. “30 Lessons for Living.” PENGUIN group, 2011-08-19. iBooks. Check out this book on the iBooks Store.