Have you ever felt like time seems to be running past you and that you were trying to run as fast as you possibly can to keep up with it? I have certainly felt that way… especially with my kids. As the years have gone by, especially in the last four years, I’ve been feeling that I’ve only got so much time left with our kids. It feels like there’s just this small little window that is going to run right by me. And I really don’t like that feeling.

You may know, we have five children and in November our fifth grandchild will be born. My daughter Arika and her husband Zac, who is the most awesome son-in-law, just found out they’re having a boy. It’s like, wow, my two little girls are married women, who are producing children. All my little boys are gone; everyone’s shaving. Our youngest is 14 and already a 5’10’ man with a hairy chest, a deep voice and wearing the same pants size as my husband. It’s crazy! Our 15-year-old is my height and Cabe, is soon to be 19.

Do you understand? Maybe you have children; maybe you don’t. Either way, there are things in your life you feel flying past you and no matter how fast you run after them, you feel like you’re never going to catch it. That’s why it’s so good to learn how to steal time. Seriously… stealing time. And you’ll never guess where we originally heard this idea!

As a little boy, my husband Hans grew up in a really bad situation. His mom was very, very poor, a single mother, married and divorced three times. Their mother just couldn’t provide for them for a number of different reasons and you go ahead and let your imagination run wild. So, by the time Hans was eight years old and his little brother only six, they were forced to make their own money. They would make flower leis in Hawaii to sell and ask tourists if they wanted to see them dive off a pier for coins. This is how they provided for themselves.

Hans was a very angry little boy and getting in fights every day after school. He was this short, blonde white kid living in Hawaii with Hawaiians, a much bigger and stronger people. There was a lot of prejudice. However, his mom did the most awesome thing for him. She went to the YMCA and found a martial arts class a man named Damien just so happened to teach.

He wasn’t one of those martial arts teachers that gets into all the mysticism and the spiritual side of it. Actually, Damien was a man who loved God and was more tied into what you can learn from the art and self-defense side of it. He truly became a mentor and gave Hans a focus and self-discipline that really helped him to become very, very successful. Today my husband is a multimillionaire and I’m so very proud of what he’s been able to do with his life.

So, one of the times we happened to be over in Hawaii visiting some family, we met up with Damien. Now, Damien has several kids and he’s a multimillionaire. He owns a ton of real estate in Hawaii, has lots of rental properties and we’ve learned so much from him through the years.

Back in those early years, of our marriage we had a really rough start and were struggling REALLY, REALLY bad. So, we were sitting at dinner with him at his house, talking and kids are running around the house. Then he just popped off this most profound thing out of his mouth, “You know, you two want to learn to steal time away from life.”

WOW! It hit us so hard… it really did! So, what does that mean? He said life can just run away from you and time can run faster than you can chase it. So you have to learn to steal time as often as you can away from life.

Last week, as Hans and I arrived in Los Angeles, we were both obviously hungry and both had things we needed to do as soon as we hit the ground. I had meetings and he had work to catch up on. So we were sitting in the car on our way to the hotel and I said to him, “Honey, what are your plans for dinner tonight?” He kind of gave me this cute little smirk and he says, well I don’t know, what are YOUR plans? I said, “Well, I HAVE plans, I’ve got to hit the ground and start working on a planning meeting and all that, but I was thinking maybe you and I should have a date.”

He says, “Dani, this was such a good idea!” Yeah, I said, we’re stealing time away from life. And I asked, remember where we first heard that? “Yep. Damien. Many, many, years ago… probably somewhere around 20 years ago.” And that’s what we’re doing right now.

We’ve done that lots of times, stealing time away from life. There’s ALWAYS so much work to do. But you’ve GOT to steal time away from life and spend quality moments with the people you love. Whether your spouse, your kids, your neighbor, your mother, your uncle, your aunt, you really want to steal time away from the busy-ness of life for that awesome quality time. Really connect: love on each other, hug on each other, kiss each other, enjoy a meal together, play cards together, travel together, just do whatever it is that you like to do! I encourage you to do that today. Steal time away from life. It makes life so much more enjoyable.

I am so glad that through my kids’ childhood, I have stolen time away from life. Taking a break from the busy-ness of life to slow down and say “Hey, let’s chill… let’s go somewhere… let’s do something… let’s enjoy some time together,” is something I made a point of doing.

So I encourage you today: STEAL TIME AWAY FROM LIFE. You will be so much happier. Instead of letting time beat you up… steal it, grab it, hide out with it and enjoy it! Share this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter telling them what YOU did to steal time away from life today. And, don’t forget to “borrow” a little time to join me Sunday night LIVE on the Dani Johnson Radio Show. God bless you!.

In great faith,