The bell is about to toll. For whom does it toll? It tolls for the children, teachers, administrators and parents who’s lives change for several months as they leave the daily school hours for summer days. How will those days be spent when there are no teachers, administrators and staff to lead the children and teach?
The summer months offer a saturation of time for families. In the summer months parents have an additional seven hours a day to spend with their children. This is an additional 35 hours a week and a total of 420 hours in the twelve week summer. Therefore as the bell tolls for families this summer how will this 420 hours be used?
The Apostle Paul states, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16) In these verses the apostle Paul is speaking to the church about redeeming the time. He literally means here to buy up the time at the marketplace, or to buy back the present time which may now be being used for evil and godless purposes. He knows that every creature is given time to be exchanged in the market of life. The time given is exchanged for occupations and activities that may or may not be worthy or productive for God glorifying gain.
Time is a precious gift that must be measured by days (Psalm 90:12) knowing that the years will care for themselves under the Lord of time. Believing this truth causes the Christian to be careful about opportunities and responsibilities that occur in a day. If a person takes eight hours a day for sleep, three hours for meals and conversation, ten hours for work on five days, that person is still left with thirty-five hours each week to exchange in the market of opportunities and responsibilities. How are your days being spent in the time of five hours a day for opportunities and responsibilities in the callings God has given you? Granted, sometimes we sleep four hours, work fourteen, eat for thirty minuets. But however you do the math or whatever chaos may rule your schedule we are still left with the fact that time is given to redeem.
God is sovereign over the Christian’s time, and the Christian is responsible for the time that God gives. The Christian must seek to manage the time given in his range of control as a responsible steward of the gift. In this management of time he must be careful about many dangers. Three of these dangers are procrastination, “urgent needs,” and leisure. Procrastination is the thief of time. We must make decisions and act on them, set deadlines and do not miss one or postpone one. The Christian who wants to read more does not get more time for it. He takes time for it. He makes a decision with the time he has been given and redeems it for the opportunity to read more.
We must also be aware of the danger of “urgent needs” and interruptions when managing our time. Every call for help is not necessarily a call from God. However, we cannot say to every interruption or urgent need that interrupts our schedule, “Get behind me Satan!” We must take interruptions and urgent needs into our schedules, because our schedules are God’s gifts to us to arrange at His pleasure. If we treat our schedule with this Godward focus then we will be looking for reasons why God has brought this interruption or urgent need. This allows us to get to the point of why God has sent this situation our way, and we will be more efficient in handling it in time.
Last, in our practical responsibility of the management of the time God gives, we must be careful with leisure. Leisure is not a bad thing, but in these evil days we are taught it is something we deserve and something to be used to satisfy the pleasures of our flesh. Leisure is a gift from God to be enjoyed for the glory of God, under the authority of His revealed will. The Christian should seek to be wise and redeem the time given in the market of leisure in a planned and purposeful mode for his good and the good of others. However, in the management of time leisure should never supplant responsibility. When we “owe it to ourselves,” we can count on someone else paying for our indulgence in leisure. And when we redeem a little time here or there in the market of leisure opportunities, when our lives are in the market of responsibility, we can count on an unwise use of the gift given and someone else paying the cost. Leisure is a good thing when managed under the control of the Holy Spirit according to the revealed will of God.
God is the giver of good gifts. He has given to His people the gift of time to be used for the glory of His name in all things, and He is concerned that we spend the time he gives wisely. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)” We must fear the Lord in the planning and use of the time he gives us and our children this summer under the direction of His revealed will in the Scriptures and by prayer. To do any less is to live as if we have no Lord.
In the next post we will think practically about how time can be used for God’s glory.
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