I Heard It on the Radio - “You’re Gonna Miss This”

I Heard It on the Radio - “You’re Gonna Miss This”

THE ROAD BETWEEN Dallas and Austin is flat as a pancake. In the summer, regardless of the time of day you travel, the sun beats you silly. The two-hundred-mile drive can get a bit monotonous as well.

One day while driving to the state capital for business, I got tired of my satellite radio and switched to my FM band. I was between major cities, so the radio scanned for a minute before tuning in to—what else in Texas?—a country station.

A strong baritone voice, smooth as butter, sang to me: “You’re gonna miss this. . . . You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast.”^a This ballad begins with Trace Adkins singing about a teen who tells her mother she can’t wait to turn eighteen. Her mom, while understanding, tells her someday she’ll miss life as it is now.

Friday night football, giggling with girlfriends, and free food. Life at seventeen is something to savor, isn’t it? If only we had the ability to see our lives from a perspective of thirty-five years in the future . . . we might start savoring the moment and the life stage we’re in rather than yearning or rushing for the next one.

The song fast-forwards a few years in the girl’s life. Now a new bride, she tells her daddy she plans to have babies and buy a house right away. Her dad, too, advises her to take it slow because she’ll miss these days before long.

Late-night movies, furniture bought at garage sales, and cheap rent. Our early married years are something to savor. If only we had the ability to see our lives from thirty years in the future . . . we might start savoring the moment and the life stage we’re in rather than yearning or rushing for the next one.

The story picks up five years later when the young wife has become a young mother. As the dogs bark and her kids scream, she apologizes to the plumber (who’s working on her broken water heater—how many of us remember those days?) for the commotion. The plumber sweetly tells her not to worry. The kids don’t bother him; he had two babies of his own—one’s now thirty-six; the other is twenty-three. He, too, tells her that someday she’ll miss these days.

Pitter-pattering feet, bedtime kisses, and free child labor. Raising babies is something to savor. If only we could see our lives from twenty years in the future . . . we might start savoring the moment rather than yearning for the next one.

My heart is confident in you, O God;my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! (Psalm 57:7)

Our challenge each day is to stop rushing down the road we’re on in order to take in the scenery of the life stage we’re passing through. We won’t be back this way again, and trust me, my young girlfriends—you’re gonna miss this. It’s hard to believe . . . one of my babies is thirty-one; the other is twenty-eight.

^a Lee Thomas Miller and Ashley Gorley, “You’re Gonna Miss This,” © EMI Blackwood Music, Inc., 2007.