Time

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"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. Verse 1"
                                                                                               Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Note this verse carefully; it says there is a time for every purpose. It's there in a nutshell. We often claim that we do not have the time to do all we have allocated for the day. But, that may be down to bad planning. The Word of God is true. We can't get away from this fact. There is time for every purpose. However, we need to take a look at how we handle our day.

If we have not the time to do what is required for the day, then perhaps we have taken on too much! We need to prioritise, making sure that the most important things of the day are taken care of and the less important ones, possibly left until tomorrow, or better still, delegated to someone else.

When our days are packed with loads of things to do, then an order of priority is the only way to approach these matters. Braking things down into bite-sized chunks (manageable pieces) makes good sense. This basically means looking at what's on the list for today and planning how to negotiate it. It may be that the thing we have broken down into manageable pieces, can be broken down again to make things that much easier. If anything more urgent crops up during this time, then that must take priority. A diary or a To Do list must be flexible, otherwise it can lead to stress and disaster. Learn to prioritise. It takes practice, but it makes for a better, manageable day.

God has given us ample time to meet every busy demand. It's us that mess it all up. One of the things that can lead to stress and unrest is time-keeping. God is always onetime, never early and never late. Therefore, we need to work in such a way too. There is nothing that causes more indignity than booking appointments for a particular time and then being 30 minutes or so late. It doesn't show the person you are meeting, that you are busy. It shows a lack of time management. Of course, occasionally because of one thing or another, this is unavoidable. However, avoid doing it on a regular basis. It adds nothing to one's self-esteem.

A great way of remembering all that needs to be done, is to keep a To Do list or a diary. But if you don't look at these planners, then it will all go pear-shaped. God may keep us waiting for answers to prayer, that is true. But that could either be because we are asking amiss, or the time is not right for God to act yet. Spending time with Him will show the way. There is no way, if we were meeting God for an hour or so, that He would turn up late, so take some lessons from Him. If a church service was due to start at 11am, it would be awful if the pastor or whoever's in charge, turned up 30 minutes late after leaving everyone out in the cold. It just couldn't be. So let us check our time-keeping.

Really it is a discipline and one that is important to take control of. Yes life is busy, things can happen out of the blue, but really, there is no excuse for bad time-keeping. Furthermore, there is a time for everything; it is just a matter of getting it right. It takes practice, hard work and most of all discipline.

Why not manage your time better from now on?

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailtlifewithjesus@protonmail.com