What To Do With Time

Time.  I hear it clicking on the clock.  The Lord knows I have wasted plenty of MY time.  Sure some, perhaps many, have been for good, but there has been time squandered as well.  Squandered with moments of indifference, anger, irritation, hurt, unforgiveness, laziness at times in work and relationships.

And time can never be given back.  

My modern clock ticks second by second to remind me that it is here, and then it is gone.  Why do we spend so much of that time waiting...wishing for the next step?

Things will be better when.  

Things will be better when what?  When we make more money?  When the little ones are older and are potty trained, can dress themselves, communicate and can read?  When we mothers are no longer spending time green, leaning over a toilet as our body builds yet another human being?  Things will be better when the house is cleaner, more organized, when we have more storage space or more space period.  Will things be better when our spouses "get it right" or when our teenagers are raised and living for the Lord? 

Why do we do this?  Why do we waste time anxiously waiting for a season where we will only anxiously wait for another season?  

It’s all foolishness.

Lord, forgive me for my time wasted in frivolous things.  Things that don’t glorify you and enhance Your Kingdom by obedience in “redeeming the time” given to me.  I am done “running” to the next.  I want each second of my life to count for Your glory.  

Every word.  Every deed.  Every thought. 

I recognize I am in a battle, Lord.  The race against time has left me wounded, but I know who my real enemy is.  It is he who wants to use time to trip us up and to imprison us.  He wants us to grow cold, indifferent and unaware of the second hand, so that we give no attention to how we are spending it.

Oh, he uses it to make us feel like we are truly paying attention.  The rushing here and there, in thought or action, only numbs us to Your will on how we ought to spend the gift of time. 

Open my eyes, Lord.  It is all selfishness.  Forgive me.  I want to live the selfless life.  This is the only way I can spend the time you’ve given, this life....well.