FCS Blog

My granddaughter Everley loves to play babies. This entails me sitting down, preferably
on the floor, and she brings her dolls to me to hold or line up on my legs. After I have all
of her babies, she tells me to be quiet because they are sleeping. She will then find a
bottle, and we will need to feed all of them. Then we need to be quiet again because
they fell back to sleep. I don’t have to do anything in these moments but be there.
These are some of my favorite moments. These are moments that I haven’t always
enjoyed and lingered over.
One author that I have enjoyed reading spent a whole chapter on the word linger.
Laura Vanderkam is a time optimization writer who lingered on this word for a chapter
in her book Off the Clock. Lingering is taking time to remember the moments that are
important to you, so you can bring these moments back to mind and enjoy them again.
She said, “It doesn’t imply that you have nothing to do or that you are avoiding the
important stuff. It implies that you have important things to do and you are giving
them the time they deserve.” After reading this chapter, I decided to make linger my
word of the year.
Too often I breeze through an event to just get through it to get to the next event. I am
not as bad as my children were when they were young. We would be on the last day of
a fun trip, and they were already talking about how they couldn’t wait until our next trip
or Christmas or whatever was next. I did not want to be like this as often as before. I
wanted to enjoy the moments that were important to me and hold onto those
memories.
Most moments are not worth lingering over. I am not too excited about remembering
the drive to and from work each day. Going grocery shopping is not something worth
spending extra time remembering. Doing most of the mundane jobs around the house
probably would not be events that you would want to bring back to your memory
unless you were doing this with someone special or for a special occasion.

You get to choose which moments you want to remember and linger over. To make that decision, you
need to be present in your moments. If you are just living your life to get through it, you are not being
present. Vanderkam says, “Lingering is about enjoying the enjoyable. It is about understanding that
you have the power to stretch time when you are in it and when you wish to stretch it.”
This is not natural for many of us. I know that I have had to be intentional about lingering in moments.
When I do something new or with family, I am now aware that it may be a moment to try to capture
and remember later. In an article entitled “Learning to Linger in the Midst of a Busy Life, the author
says, “I think we can still practice the awareness of seeing the best in whatever moment we are in and
be present there. Even if only for a few minutes.” A few minutes can make all the difference.
Lingering is a great thing to do with Jesus. I have often rushed through my devotion and prayer time
and not even remembered what verse or chapter I read or who or what I prayed for. I have tried to
remember to pray for God to show me how I can apply this verse or chapter in my life today. I have
tried to add a few minutes after to linger in God’s presence. I have tried to take a few moments
throughout the day to recall my morning devotions and linger on a verse or pray again for that
someone or something. Lingering with Jesus is time well spent.
Now it is your turn. Give it a try. Take a few moments today or tomorrow or this coming week to just
linger in a moment you want to remember. Thank God for that moment and hold it close to your heart.
If you don’t like lingering, you can always go back to the way you did things before.

Inspiring MindsThoughts from the Admin...

David Freberg, Head of Schools