By Jack Kroft (Lynley’s man)
I DON’T know her real name. Could be Tiffany, or Abbie, or Brianne. She’s just a young girl with a cute bow in her hair and a pink plastic purse matching her outfit. But she’s across the aisle from me at Panera, having breakfast… with her mom, before school.
I don’t know why that makes my eyes mist and my nose sting. Yes, yes I do know why. Seeing t
hem banter back and forth over blueberry muffins, I feel a twinge of sorrow. I don’t get to have that “special time” before school with my sons. They live with their mother, too far from my reach to pick them up before school. Even if that were possible, it wouldn’t fit in the “divorce agreement” (which, by the way, I DIDN’T agree to!)
The cute little girl and her mommy just walked out, talking about the child’s grandma. Their table is now as empty as I feel.
IF I could have breakfast with my sons, I’d do it one on one, with each of the four, at different times. You know, maybe I will. Despite the distance, and the inconvenience, maybe this “breakfast with Tiffany” that I just witnessed gave me inspiration.
I think it is. Yes. The hope I’m feeling now is actually washing away some of the emptiness.
In a study of nearly 8,000 children living in eight European countries, researchers found that those who ate breakfast with their parents five to seven times per week were as much as 40 per cent less likely to be overweight, than those who had a family breakfast just two to three times a week.
twentyfoursevenmarriage 
Muffins with mom & donuts with dad are always a big hit in our home when the kids were young. Surviving in an age of on the run and fast food is a bit hectic, but we guarded our time one day a week where it was a total disconnect from the whole world. Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is the Sabbath and we take it to extreme and protect it voraciously! No cell phones, no computer, no tv, no shopping, no eating out–but time with one another, at home, or at church out in nature doing that thing called “family time with one another” enjoying time with one another, God and the things He made for or enjoyment. We do this not because we “have to”, rather because we can.
Toodle-0ooh from Texas!
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Yes, family time is essential, regardless of our hectic schedules. Thank you for being a good, consistent example to those of us who need a good kick in the pants to prioritize our prioritizory… Wait, is that a word?!
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