Prodigally Wasteful

I loved this quote from Dan Allender, addressing our laziness as parents when we don’t play with our children in the name of efficiency:

Play requires more time and demands more engagement than does your work … work is onerous and efficient, whereas play is fun and prodigally wasteful. You can weed a flowerbed far faster alone than you can by involving a child in the process. One can ride a bicycle far faster and farther without the encumbrance of children. A walk will produce more physical exercise when undertaken alone than it can if a child is tagging along asking questions about trees and birds and whether you saw that lizard dart into the rocks…Play is ridiculously inefficient. It splurges and spends, often without any apparent return on its investment.
— Dan Allender, How Children Raise Parents

God knows I need this reminder sometimes.

It is so easy for me to forget that time spent just being with my kids, regardless of whether or not anything measurable is being accomplished, is time well spent.

HT: Life Together