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Time Capsule

Grab

Plastic storage container with a lid

Plastic storage bags

Current newspaper, magazine, and clothing catalog

Samples of your daughter’s recent artwork

Photographs of family and friends

Various mementos such as award ribbons, stickers, special homework assignments, small toys, favorite Bible verses, etc.

Clean packaging from your daughter’s favorite snacks

Go

Begin packing the container together. Place photographs and paper items in plastic storage bags before packing them away. Talk about how the headlines in the newspaper and the fashions in the catalog will probably seem like “old news” after a short amount of time. Ask her if she thinks the homework she’s saving will seem as challenging in the future as it was for her at the time. Does she think the snacks she prefers now will still be her favorites when she’s older?

Find a corner of the yard where the container can be buried. Take care to avoid tree roots and any area where pipes or electrical wires could be under the soil. Let your daughter help dig a hole to bury the container.

Plan a date to dig it up again! One year or two years from now? Or does your daughter wish to add a few items to the container each year? Make a plan and put it on the calendar as a reminder.

Grow

Nobody knows more than a parent how time can fly. Wasn’t your daughter an infant, say, yesterday? You’ve seen her change and grow from year to year. A time capsule is a wonderful way to make a “snapshot” of who she is right at this moment in time.

Ask your daughter these questions:

What can you do now that you couldn’t do when you were two years old?

What can you do now that was hard when you were five?

What do you think you will be able to do when you’re seventeen that you can’t do now? What about when you’re twenty? Forty?

God is well aware of how each of us grows and changes year by year. In fact, he promises to help us grow more like Jesus until we see him face-to-face in heaven. It’s encouraging to know that he doesn’t give up on us even when we are slow learners, but keeps on working in us every single day.

A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart.

Author Unknown

Hebrews 13:21 says God will “equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ” (ESV).

It’s encouraging to know that “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Eccles. 3:11). He’s doing a wonderful work in us, right on time!

Dear Lord,

Thank you for working in us to make us more like Jesus. Thank you for being patient with us even when we’re slow to learn and grow. Thank you, too, that we don’t have to work hard to make ourselves perfect because you are the one who gives us a new heart and mind. You are so good to us! Amen.