Stewardship: Time

Have you ever wished there were 32 hours in a day instead of 24 hours? Or wished there were eight days in a week instead of seven? Sometimes, my life can get so busy, I wish I had an extra eight hours to sleep, or maybe even an extra day, to catch my breath. Especially, when I take a vacation that turns into a workcation. Hence, the reason why we need to be good stewards of our time.

Time is something that must be properly steward. Whether that be the number of our days, seasons of life we are in, or the time it takes to go through the process of growth and development, we must steward our time well.

 While stewarding our time well is easier said than done, there are two verses that encourage me to steward my time well. The capacity of procrastination and the capacity of stewarding the time we have been given. Now, you might be saying these are two exact opposites, how are you encouraged in these two capacities? I’m glad you asked. Let’s start with Laziness.

Proverbs 6:10-11 says, “A little sleep, a little slumber. A little folding of the hands to sleep – so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man”. This verse encourages me to steward my time well and combat the enemy of procrastination. This verse deals with laziness – to choose not to do something, but the verse makes me think of procrastination in my own life.

Sometimes I slip into procrastination when my brain is tired, and I just do not feel like thinking. At these times, I think about Proverbs 6:10-11 and encourage myself by saying, “self, if you procrastinate on this, you may miss your opportunity, or you may end up waiting until the buzzer hits 10 seconds remaining on the clock. Running the risk of making mistakes that cannot be undone.”

After I have this conversation with myself, I begin  to plan out how to steward my time that I may finish everything that needs to be done. To be completely transparent, I do not always succeed in stewarding my time, which causes a ripple effect in every area of my time. As if the prowler has come upon me. Although, when I do succeed in stewarding my time, I am not as stressed and have this peace of accomplishment.

The second verse that encourages me, when it comes to stewarding my time, is James 4:13. Understanding life is a vapor, and tomorrow is never promised, puts a little fire under my feet to do the things God has called me to do. Therefore, I try to be intentional about what and who I give my time to. Why, because time is precious. Once time is spent, we can never get it back. I never want to go to Heaven to find out there was more for me to do, and I had the time to do it but chose not to by wasting time on things that did not matter.

I want to challenge you to examine how you are using your time these days. Do you slip into procrastination at times or even laziness? Do you see the value of time and how precious it is? Or do you feel like time is just a way of telling the difference between day and night? I want to encourage you to start monitoring how you spend your time and how you value time. Think about how you would feel if you were to go to Heaven and find you barely used up your time on earth.

Once you have examined how you use your time, start planning how you can be more intentional about stewarding your time.