You are tired. It was a long week.

Your email and social media beckon you.

So does the television. So does movie night.

But your children are watching you. They are waiting for you to act.

Will you use this time to talk to them?

Let this be an encouragement for us all: Talk to them while they are here.

Because this time will pass. It will pass too fast.

And how will you wish your time had been spent?

“Little and not-so-little girls need to talk too, especially about what they are feeling. Let me speak directly to the busy mom and dad who are too exhausted at the end of the day to get your kids talking, either at the dinner table or in those intimate few minutes before bedtime: you may be making a serious mistake. You need to know what your children are thinking, and they need the pleasure of telling you about it. Even though some loquacious kids will “talk the horns off a billy goat” and you come home too tired to listen, it is imperative that you tune in—especially to your girls. There will come a time when they will be talking primarily to their peers, and the missed opportunities for understanding and intimacy today will be costly down the road.”

-Dr. James Dobson, Bringing Up Girls (Amazon)