Timothy Smith - Simple Solutions for Families in the Fast Lane

Simple
Solutions for
Families
in the
FAST LANE

Timothy Smith

2005 by Timothy Smith

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

E-book edition created 2010

Spire edition published 2010

Previously published in 2005 by Bethany House as Connecting with Your Kids

ISBN 978-1-4412-1223-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked Message is taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

All stories are true. The names and some details have been changed to protect privacy.

To Denny and Allyson Weinberg

When vision, passion, and need meet,
the impact is astounding.

Contents

I am grateful for all who have supported me in my effort to strengthen families, notably:

Denny and Allyson Weinberg for the vision to co-found our organization.

Steve and Jana McBeth, Don and Sherry Armstrong, Steve and Robin Todd, Jack and Arlonne Monroe, Rich and Sheryl Bullock, and Steve and Debbie Carmandalian for their faithful service and wise counsel as directors.

Greg Johnson, my co-conspirator, friend, cheerleader, and agent.

Christopher Soderstrom, my editor, who knows his job and sports, and is fun to work with.

Our daughters, Nicole and Brooke, for their enthusiasm and props (and letting me write about them!).

My wife, Suzanne, who actually has the best ideas on parenting even though its my name on the cover.

During the age of the sundial, Sophocles wrote, Time is a gentle deity. While that may explain how people felt about time during 406 BC, for those of us living in 2005 and beyond, there is nothing remotely gentle about time. Time stands over a family today and cracks a whip! Everything is moving faster, and almost everyone feels time-strapped. If theres a universal complaint I hear as I talk to families about making changes, it is I dont have time! Theres no time to even think about what were not doing or failing at doing because weve got so much on our plate already! Every single thing on our plate is an A item, and were fighting for every secondand today, seconds count.

For example, did you know that in just three decades, weve seen the average television commercial go from two minutes to fifteen seconds? Who has time today to listen for two whole minutes to a sales pitch? And if you dont think youre addicted to speed, think about the last time you got in an elevator. What happens when you punch the button and nothing happens? Ten seconds in an elevator without the door closing is forever. Or how long did it take you to go from dial-up to high-speed on your office computer? (Could you even imagine not having high-speed at work and, for that matter, at home?)

In the jungles of New Guinea, a missionary friend of ours told my wife and me about a remote village they visited. The entire village was without a single mechanical clock of any kind. Instead, the people there measure their days by work days and rest days. Meaning, you work one day, then you rest the next.

Does that sound like your days?

Can you even remember the last time you and your family had a day of rest?

The very thing fast families need right now is a book likethis that talks our language. That language is speed. We need to understand how weve become so hooked on it and, even more important for our familys health, how we can actually slow down enough to hear our familys heartbeat.

Tim Smith has done a wonderful job of giving us extra-busy types a great many on-target insights that dont make a person feel worthless for living a busy life. Nor does he tell us to do something thats simply impossiblelike going back to Little House on the Prairie. The fact is, there is no going back to an unhurried time.

For example, in 1875 there were over two hundred unique time zones across the country. In essence, every major city had its own standard time. When clocks dont agree, theres alimit to how fast things can move. In short, a train might pull in to a station and be on time if judged by the clock in the city where your journey began, and be ahead of time somewhere else, requiring you to wait before pulling out.

As soon as we went on standardized time across our country, the accelerator hit the floor. When you dont have to wait, everything moves toward now. And once our entire nation got on the clock, everything began to be measured first by railroad time, which means fast, and today, with space travel, supercomputers, and fiber-optic networks, even atomic clocks arent fast enough to keep up! Now we need super clocks that measure time in nanosecondsmeasured in billionths of a second. What does life speeding up mean for our family?

With all that speed, just to keep up with the new norm, we need two jobs. Night classes to get recertified. Time carved out for church and kids programs. Choir practices. Soccer leagues. Helping with homework. In-laws. Bills to pay. Pets to look after. Repairmen to call. Were overwhelmed with so much to do and all of it demanding to be done right now.

If that sounds like your family, and if your tongue is hanging out from feeling hurried and harried, then youve picked up the right book. Simple Solutions for Families in the Fast Lane is a must if you want to move from all the rush to genuine closeness, caring, and rest.

Ive known Tim Smith for years; he has worked and ministered to people who live in the absolute epicenter of what it means to be busy. His insights have helped hundreds of families in the incredibly fast-paced, high-tech world of some of the worlds most valued real estate in Southern California. If he can help these cyber-speed families, then whether you live in Manhattan or Missoula, he can help your family as well.

And one last thought in case youre among those who have picked up the book, read this far, and are still trying to decide if you have time to read it. Please dont think to yourself, Well, that sounds interesting, but I know things willslow down when we or the kids get older. The fact is, by the time you get to the future (should the Lord tarry), time will have sped up, not slowed down! Heres a sobering thought: The more time that passes, and the more experiences we collect, the faster time seems to pass! Meaning every year you get older, things will speed up for you, not slow down. Just talk to senior citizens today and ask them what its like having all that free time, and then watch their eyes roll. If youre looking for a slow-down future to take the time to learn about how to slow down your life to strengthen your family, know that it simply wont come. I strongly encourage you to take the time