This is a guest post by my husband Glenn:

My parents, sister and niece came over for dinner last week. We enjoyed crowding around our table with tacos and sopapillas (which I taught my dad how to make), catching up on everything all at once and nothing in particular. It was a nice evening that was ordinary in every way. As the evening closed and my family departed, I quietly reflected within myself that this simple time of togetherness was an expression of something much greater, something invisibly exceptional.

We live in a world where many things are fast, accessible and transient, and they are becoming increasingly moreso every day. And while I acknowledge that efficiency and adaptability are necessary ingredients to success in the 21^st century, there is something to be said for the slower side of life.

Think for a moment about the natural world around us. In general, there is a direct relationship between the time it takes to establish something and how long it lasts. Subterranean caverns, formed by one drop of water. The immense Sequoia and Redwood trees. Precious stones, generated through years of clandestine waiting in the right circumstances.

My evening with my family looked and felt ordinary. But it was a part of a bigger picture, a mosaic of years with the power to establish something lasting and indefinite. The span of years that a family spends together will invariably shape the values and perspectives of those brought up together. I was blessed as a child to have parents that decided to model the life of our family after the path that Jesus set for us, and it is now my responsibility to care for my own children, providing them with consistent leadership and love through the slower side of life.