Good Evening sweet friends. It has been an extraordinarily beautiful weekend in my "neck of the woods." I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams.
First, I am on my way to Heaven. We have all heard the saying that "we want to go to Heaven, but we just don't want to go on a trainload going today." I am not sure about that anymore. The older I get, the more people I have waiting for me there, the closer I am to the Lord and desiring to see His sweet face, the more I shout the words of Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit when he said, "for me to live is Christ, to die is gain." Phil 1:21
Second, God has given me a certain amount of time, graced me with His love, gifts and talents (Psalm 39: 4-5) and then promised me eternity with Him where time shall be no more (Rev. 10:6). That's a WOW!
There are so many thoughts, impactful quotes, and profound lessons on the subject of time. It is such a precious commodity that once gone, can never be retrieved; and yet, we often foolishly waste it.
Our use of time is important to the Lord or He would not have admonished us to walk in wisdom, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Eph. 4:15-16). He wants us to be disciplined with our time. (Oh boy, now I have gone to meddling). What a huge subject for later discussion - at least it is for me.
When we are young, we believe we have all of the time in the world. I can remember thinking when I was 6 that my 7th birthday would never arrive. Now that I am 61, I realize if the Lord doesn't come back, "Please come back, soon" that I will be celebrating my 70th birthday in what feels like a matter of "minutes." This feeling of "hurling time" is exacerbated by my job that requires me to plan about 6 months ahead. It sometimes feels like I miss out on "being in the present" because my focus right now is already in January.
We have also all heard the old adage, "time flies when you are having fun." I have news for you, my time flies, fun or no fun. So, I need to make sure my time is well spent.
Third, There is something precious about time spent with family and people I love - people in whom I have invested time and people who have invested time in me.
My priorities get really out of whack sometimes, and I have been guilty of spending precious time with less important things before spending time with those in whom the Lord has called me to invest, including my family and friends. (Thank you, Frank, Muther, and Suster for continually reminding me of the importance of prioritizing my time and spending the "first fruits" of it with the Lord, then Frank, then those whom the Lord has laid on my heart to love, including family.)
I believe I spent my time wisely this weekend. What a glorious weekend I had with family. Suster and I spent time with family, especially cousins we have loved for a lifetime.
We watched a family member get married in her mother's wedding dress made by the bride's grandmother (now deceased); saw the bridesmaids come down the aisle of the grassy meadow under cloudy skies only to see the clouds part for the sun to shine through just in time to provide the most striking sunlight rays as the bride began her walk to the altar.
We listened to the minister give the message of the gospel, drawing the parallel between the marriage of the bride and groom and believers as the bride of Christ. We were all affected differently by the message.
Some of us were watching the young children, some of us were watching the bride and groom, others were fidgeting over the amount of time the minister spent completing the ceremony. My elderly aunt was heard saying, "if he preaches a regular sermon like he preaches at a wedding, I'm gonna have to take a sandwich to church." (I laughed out loud at that one.)
She thought he spent way too much time on the ceremony; but then when you are 91 and redeeming your time, you might look at at wedding ceremony a little bit differently, too. Right? She was saved, knew where she was spending eternity, and thought it was time for cake. I didn't argue with her.
The sweet bride and groom spent time with their wedding guests. After they left, I decided I needed to get a good night's rest and started to leave about 9:30pm. With a little coercion, I decided to stay for awhile (3:00am). We laughed (the snorting kind) until we cried, told stories, made up stories, enhanced old stories, and created enough memories to last a lifetime.
I woke up this morning physically weary, but grateful for such special time with family. I also woke up to a sweet message from Frank, "did you have fun, please come home, do you want to go on a date tonight?" After 31 years, I am so grateful that my sweet Frank still wants to spend time with me.
The thought that has stood out to me during my musing about time is that the greatest ROI of time (return on investment) is our time spent with the Lord, learning to know Him better, because that is the source of wisdom. When we have wisdom, we have power in life to make smart decisions, including knowing how to spend our time in a way that adds the greatest value to others.
This weekend, I invested the precious commodity of time in others, adding value to their lives. They invested their time in me and added great value to my life as well.
What is the return on your investment of time? Try to make a list of what glory the Lord receives as a result of how you spend your time. I will do it, too. When He is glorified through our lives, then we have invested our time wisely. Love to you all. Still approaching each and every day with joy. Mecca
"The key is in not spending time, but in investing it."
~ Stephen R. Covey
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