Finding people richer, smarter, taller, shorter, prettier, or more talented than you may be easy, but you can search the world over and not find a living soul who has more than 24 hours a day at their disposal.  How that time is used separates the happy from the depressed, the successful from the unsuccessful, and more importantly the saved from those who are lost.

To discover “Where does the time go?” take a sheet of lined notebook paper. Number from midnight to noon and then from 1 to midnight on the left hand side. Draw 7  vertical columns and label them the days of the week.

Block out the hours you sleep. Hopefully that’s  7 to 8 hours. If not, your body does not have time to rest and heal. Remove the hours you spend eating. If you work outside the home block out those hours and the time to commute, and the hours spent helping at home. If you stay at home, block out the hours spent cooking, cleaning, doing yard work, grocery shopping, laundry, home schooling, child care, running errands, repairing items, etc.  What’s left? Perhaps a couple of hours a day and more time on the weekends.

How many of these free hours are spent watching mindless TV, playing video games, talking on the cell phone, sending and answering email, and ignoring your spouse and children?

Wasted TIME is gone.  Never to be recovered.

Our TIME, like our talents and treasure are a gift from God. Like all gifts from God, a portion needs to be given to him. Of the 168 hours in a week, how many does God receive from you? Does God get your TIME leftovers? Is an hour on Sunday all he receives, and that only if you did not over sleep or plan a weekend getaway?

TAKE BACK YOUR TIME!  Eliminate 30 minutes of wasted time a day and spend it with God. Sit quietly. Pray for others and yourself. Listen for Him to speak to your heart. Read a devotion. Read the scriptures or a Christian book. If you are a writer, pray for guidance. Writing is a gift, ask God to help you use it to His glory.

If you have TIME on your hands, volunteer, spend time with a lonely person, help an elderly person. Enlist your spouse, children, or friends to join you.

TIME invested with God reaps peace and eternal life.