Time

This school year I have been going through the devotional "Christian Manhood" with Caleb and Zachary. In our study a couple of weeks ago, we were studying about time. Don't you love it when you are teaching your children a spiritual truth and it seems to hit you more than them?  I never thought this lesson would impact me the way it did....but I won't think of time the same anymore!

Time is such a precious thing, a valuable gift, yet we tend to take it for granted. Our time here on earth has been measured out by God. We don't know how much time we have here on earth. We don't know if we will even wake up tomorrow morning. We don't know how many breaths we have left in us. I find that to be a very sobering thought. Not because I am scared of dying, because I know where I will spend eternity, but because I want to know that I know that I have accomplished all God has put me on earth for.

Once time is gone....it's gone!! We can never get last year, last week, yesterday, or even the last minute back! It's gone, forever!

I think about my free time and how I use it.  I look forward to those times where I can just relax for a few minutes in the evening. Those times where all the littles are tucked into bed and I can just sit and do nothing if I want! But lately I have been asking myself....what would God want me to do with this free time? Now, don't get me wrong. I am not against relaxing....we need rest and relaxation to be refreshed. But I think that even in my relaxing moments I can use my time wisely or unwisely. What do I spend those moments doing? Fulfilling the lust of the flesh or renewing my mind and spirit?

Here's a quote from the devotional book that really made me think. "Will what you are going to do with your time affect your affections? Will it in any way block your sense of the presence of God? Will it take away your desire for spiritual things? Will the way you use your time cause you to become more materialistic? Is your first concern for lost people or for the things money can buy? If what you plan to do with your time will in any way cause you to be less interested in spiritual things, then don't do it! Many people have set their affections on things, and they have little time or interest for those who are unsaved or for helping other Christians. Are you seeking only pleasure throughout the way you use your time?"

Then there is how I manage my time. As the years went by and we had more and more children, I realized the importance of using my time wisely in our home. I found that if I didn't have some kind of a schedule in my day I would tend to waste too much time and things just wouldn't get done! There are so many things that can steal my time. Internet, books, videos, visiting friends, texting or talking on the phone....not that these things are bad, but it is too easy to get lost in them and loose all sense of time. I have a responsibility to God and to my family to manage my time wisely. If day after day the laundry isn't getting washed/folded, if we are eating too much fast food, if my house is always in a state of chaos, if my kids are undisciplined....I need to re-evaluate the way I am spending my time because more often than not, my energies have been put into the wrong places.

It takes self-control to manage my time wisely. It would be easier many days to sit on the couch and read a book rather than doing laundry, cleaning house or making meals. It would be easier to spend time on the internet and ignore the children who are running wild around me. It would be easier to watch a movie and get lost in the moment rather than address what needs to be done around me. But if I choose to do these things, I am not using my time wisely. I am being a time waster. Of course there are some days where there are just not enough hours in the day and I just have to ignore the work around me and do some relaxing but this isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about being characterized by wasting time.

So these days I have been finding myself thinking a little bit more of how I use my time. I want to use my spare time to do something that will not just be chaffed burnt up one day, but will things that will affect my eternity in heaven. I only have a short time here on earth for my life is but a vapour, it's here today but it could be gone tomorrow.

How are you spending your time?

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Eph.5:15-16

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