It costs you nothing – no financial expenditure is required of us and yet people don’t just want your time, they crave it.
I’ve told most of you before that I keep a 3 gallon glass jar on my desk with a marble in it for every week I’ve been alive…there are somewhere beyond 3900 marbles in the jar so far and it’s getting within a few inches of the top. Part of me hopes I need to get a bigger jar at some point. The reason for the jar is to remind me each Friday that I’ve traded off another week of my life for something, and I ask my self, “Was it worth what I spent?”
Randy Stinson, Provost at Southern Seminary, Louisville, KY, has a jar on his desk with enough marbles in it to represent all the weeks he has left until his youngest child reaches 18 years of age. He knows that’s the time he has to really influence his children for eternal things and a Christian world-view. He removes a marble each week.
Sometimes I hear, “I just don’t have enough time for____________” and you can fill in the blank. That is simply not true. You have the same amount of time every week that everybody else does. Doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, sick or healthy, or anything else. You get 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year. That’s it.
You have to decide what you are going to trade off your time for each week. Dare I suggest that you consider these applications of your time NOW! This is not a dress rehearsal and all too soon these things will be gone. What are you trading your life off for these days? Ephesians 5:16: Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
- For your children – Be present in the now. It’s not the hours together, it’s the time you spend 100% present with them.
- For your older parents/family – Be there for them – again, by removing distractions and talking one-on-one. When we die, the last thing we are going to request is that the TV is on in the room and no direct communication is taking place.
- For your spouse – Recapture the way you felt the first time you realized that you were in love. That winning formula never goes out of style, we just forget to keep doing it.
- For people you work with or for – Be a sounding board. Do not judge. Just your ears alone are worth more than any words that come out of your mouth. We talk often about offering an ear to bend, a shoulder to lean on or cry on and occasionally, a kick in the pants. You doing that?
- And for your friends – Be playful and innovative. As kids that’s how we made friendships and that formula never grows old. We can have 1,000 Facebook friends, 100 Instagram followers, a whole host of acquaintances but in life we only have a handful of true friends – people who deeply care about each other – and these people must be cherished.
One Final Note
Don’t put it off until “someday,” because someday may never come. One day it will be too late.
