The other day I mentioned “waiting”. I wanted to come back to it and elaborate for the two of you reading along. =) Waiting sounds like a word that describes nothing…specifically doing nothing. Waiting sounds like a boring word because mostly we relate to it as the boring time leading up to tasks. Like waiting in line at the grocery store, waiting for a table in a busy restaurant, waiting at a stop light, waiting for your month end job to finish running so you can move to the next report =) or waiting for a child to be born when you are two weeks past due and have been in labor FOREVER…you get the point. We think of waiting as boring, nerve racking nothingness.
What if we took all of the time we spend “waiting” and turned it into eternal minutes? You know, minutes that we spend investing in our relationship with God instead of wasting them on worldly pleasures and things.
A year or so ago I received an e-mail devotion from “Girlfriends in God”. It was regarding TIME. The first statement was really all I need to read…”Every minute of every day is either wasted or invested.” Whoa! The devotion went on to discuss setting priorities, scheduling those priorities, and sticking to them among the changing chaotic environment we call life. When I started looking at my minutes…I admit I was ashamed. I always thought I was very organized and great at time management…but when you break it down so simple…to how many minutes you invest vs. waste…I was shameful. So I began praying Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom”. (NLT)
Here is another excerpt from the devotion that I would like to share with you… “Time is a precious gift! Every morning we are credited with 86,400 seconds. No balance is carried into the next day and every night erases what we fail to use. If we use it in the wrong way, that time is lost forever and cannot be reclaimed. Un-budgeted time gravitates to our weaknesses, is stolen by others or wasted on the unimportant. We must budget time, just as Jesus did.”
God freely gives us 1,440 minutes per day. How many do we invest and how many do we waste?
Think of ways we can use our “waiting” minutes to draw nearer to Christ in a busy world. Some ways I thought of were to take my scripture memory cards with me everywhere and practice them while in lines (grocery store, bank, doctor, etc), let the kids quiz me on the scripture cards in the car ride home (they LOVE to do that!), crochet a scarf for the cancer center while waiting at ball practice, and read my Bible at night while waiting for bed time (instead of TV!!!).
What ideas do you have? Please share!
Be a blessing this week!
In Him,
Kristy =)
I like to use my riding in the car time to talk to the Lord. Lets face it we spend alot of time driving. So instead of the radio I talk sometimes in my mind and sometimes out loud..depends on my day and if I am just talking or pleading with the Lord to shut my mouth for me or to help me with patience. Patience is a weak trait of mine that I am working on right now so pray for me. :) While waiting for kindergarten graduation to start this week I overheard a couple discussing their broken marriage. They were sitting behind me and they weren't talking very quietly. So I began to pray for them...then it dawned on me how many people were there to see their kids but were in a family crisis..so I prayed for the whole room of people. I got to see which kid was the couple sitting behind me and as i still pray for them I just see that sweet little boys face in my mind. We can do alot with our waiting time. For me I am enjoying my talks with the Lord and praying for those unsuspecting people that cross my path. :) Something else I have started doing is journaling my prayers so when I am waiting I write my prayers, my thanks, my confessions, just my thoughts to the Lord. The more time I spend talking to Him the more I seem to be at peace. That's the awesome power of the Lord.
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