Undivided Attention

For the past several days two simple words have been running around in my head, "undivided attention". You used to hear that phrase often, in school perhaps or even in church. Many children heard their parents say to them, "please give me your undivided attention for a bit" and we did. We knew what that meant. Now, we have become such a multi-tasking people that we don't even know how to give undivided attention. Little children wish so much that their parents would show them just a few minutes of undivided attention, rather than be texting while hearing about the school day or having to have the bedtime story interrupted by calls on the cell. Children learn from what they see and all too often they have learned to give only one ear to a parent by the very way we act with them. Grandparents too are checking email, checking facebook, talking to someone while in line at the store or having a meal out with family. We watch television with one eye and ear while we have a "meaningful" conversation with a loved one. Business meetings are interrupted a million times by some way or another.
Our children have come to understand that they are just a small piece of our attention. Parents play video games in the same room that their child is throwing a fit about something or another, perhaps a bit of that undivided attention is needed. Perhaps we need to have a revival of the concept of doing one thing at a time !
We get behind the wheel of our car and eat, talk on the phone, some even text and miss that time for silence, or hearing what sort of day the child had in school while we drive them home.
We are disconnected in some part, not fully plugged in to life around us. Certainly the research has shown that children, loved ones and friends would all like a bit of this one on one time.
We all need time apart from being torn in three directions at once. We all need quiet time for ourselves and we might all be less stressed out if we just had someone give us some undivided attention as well as giving it to those we love, those we do business with and most of all, to God.