Time...

Time... It's one of those things that is really hard to get a handle on. It seems like there is never enough of it; and it moves so fast we wonder where it went and then we wish we had more of it or could get it back.

The Rolling Stones sing a song called "Time is on my Side". While this song is more about a girl than it is time, the title does make me think. Because time really isn't on our side. From the moment we are born, our days are numbered. There is no infinite amount of time here on earth. There is no guarantee of how much time we will have or if we even have the time of tomorrow. Yet, I know I do not always make the best use of my time.

When you are young it seems like you have all the time in world, but the older you get the more you realize that time is fleeting. And time is such a hard thing to handle. If you work a full time job, work at home raising children, go to school full time etc., there are not many hours in the day that are truly your own.

How do we use the time that we call our own? I know that I don't always use my time in the best ways. It's really easy when you are busy all day to get home and really want to do nothing. To do what I call "vegging out" so you can just empty your mind and your thoughts. While that is definitely ok to do, I think sometimes we let ourselves fall into a trap of feeling like we just don't have time to do anything once we get home. We don't have time for prayer, we don't have time for bible study or reading books, we don't have time for exercise... the list could go on and on.

While I think it's very important to take time out to just rest & be still, it's also important not to let rest or "vegging out" take us over. We always find the time to do the things we really want to do. So even those things we say we want to do but we don't have time for, we really do have time for if it's important to us.

We have to be intentional about most things in our life that are important to us. Prayer, study, reading, spending time with our families, those are all intentional things. Time is no different. If we want to make the most of or even a better use of our time, we have to be intentional. Time is fleeting; and the older we get, the faster it goes. And if we aren't careful, one day we are really going to look up and say "where did the time go". We are not guaranteed tomorrow and only God knows how much time we truly have. I plan to be more intentional about my time and the things that are important to me. I wonder what life would look like if I was more intentional about my time every day. I wonder what it would look like if I started framing my day with what God wanted me to use my time for instead of what I want to use my time for. I don't want to miss anything God has in store for me and my time, so I plan to be more intentional and find out!

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

Blessings!