A Life Well-Lived, Part 1; Timothy's Prayer

Please allow me to introduce my son Timothy Christian Allison ("Tim" to some, but always "Timothy" to his mom!). Timothy was born the 3rd in a lineup of 9 children. Caleb, Bethany, Timothy, Joseph, and Hannah Grace are all around 2 years apart in age, then 9 years and several infant losses later, Jubilee joined the crew to balance the number of girls to boys. Jubilee was followed by another infant loss, so when asked how many children we had, I would answer, "Six on the ground and 3 in Heaven."

Timothy's very imperfect parents, Herb and Kim (that's me), had a vision of equipping their children to be world changers - people who would not just "go with the flow," but forge new paths and take risks for the Kingdom of God.

We were a homeschool family, so we were privileged to spend our days together - learning, exploring, and socializing with all ages, since we lived so close to extended family. Occasionally, a kid would want to see how things worked in public school, and might attend there for a year or so, but all of them (except Jubilee, who is in 11th grade) graduated from Rocky Ridge Christian School, the name we settled on for our home educational adventure.

Maybe because I like to write, I often gave the children prayer journals. As a general rule, they would fill in a page or two, then the rest of the journal would be blank. But I just kept handing out journals! I found Timothy’s journal dated 2011 (18 years old). True to form, 3 pages were written in, spanning 3 years time, and the rest blank. Reading his journal entry solved a dilemma that had me puzzled. As I had heard and read the many tributes pouring in about Timothy, I didn't see how it was humanly possible for a person to have that much time in their day to invest in all the relationships he had - enough time for hundreds of people to firmly believe he was their best friend - plus time for all of his businesses and activities.

Well, now I know. His journal entry was a prayer asking God for time. And the more time he gave away, the more God supernaturally multiplied it. "Bless me so I can bless others. Teach me how to influence people. Give me time! a mission, boldness to stand strong, and Joy for life!"

May we all.

“Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you..” Matthew 7:7