The Christmas Shoes Movie - A Lesson on What's Important in Life

I am watching The Christmas Shoes Movie and it is hitting home because it parrallels my life at present. It's a story about how life and work can get in the way of what's important - family. Life is so short, when my kids were born I started scrapbooks for them not only to remember their lives, but also so if something happened to me they would know how much I loved them. I filled it with my dreams for them and my heart, then I stopped because life got in the way.

God has given me a wake up call tonight with The Christmas Shoes Movie. I'm crying so much that I have a lake of tears at the base of my neck. The movie is about two families, one a successful lawyer is too busy making money and buying things that show his affluence. He misses his daughters school performance and has grown away from his wife whom he wants to start working so they can have a larger home.
The other family is also a single income family but the father owns a automotive shop that is struggling yet he is content with the mother staying home with their son. Their lives are intertwined without the lawyer realizing that the boy he helps buy a pair of shoes for his dying mother is his wife's friend that is dying. He is too occupied to see what is happening around him or to understand what his wife and daughter need.

This story has hit home for me and has strong parallels to my present life, God talks to us in very unusual ways sometimes. My husband owns an automotive shop that is struggling, I have a son the same age as the boy with the dying mother. My son is very thoughtful, empathetic, and sensitive to my feelings and happiness, just like the boy in the movie listens to what his mom needs.

I recently went back to work and have been very very focused on work, putting in long hours and travelling for weeks at a time. I sacrifice time with my family for my career, money and me time. When I was home for the better part of 6 years, I sacrificed my career, money and me time to be with my kids. I've missed parent teacher interviews, celebration of learning, and assembly presentations in the short time I've been back at work. This week I'm out of town and lost a day due to car trouble so I was debating on whether I should go back for my son's Christmas Concert Thursday night because I'd be missing another day of work on Friday.

I am ashamed of myself, but couldn't see what I was doing to my family because I wasn't there to see it. I'm not going to tell my son that I'm coming, I want to surprise him. I can't wait to see him as the ballet dancing sheep! It also means I'll be home for 2 whole weeks on vacation, I plan on spending as much time doing things like making puzzles, playing Barbies, playing Wii and snowboarding with them.

I also want to start up my scrapbooks again, to continue recording their lives and my love for them in the pages. Life is so short and if I'm not here to tell them how much I love them, how proud I am of them, and my dreams for them - I want the books to be able to tell them for me. I pray to God that I will be around to see my children grow and have children of their own. I pray to God as much as I can that he'd send angels to my children to surround them with their wings and protect them. I know I have no control over the future and what happens to us, I pray that whatever happens though my children will feel I put them first.