Entertaining Time Thieves—Part 2

In Part 1 of “Entertaining Time Thieves,” I (Dawn) focused on the massive amount of time we waste. While we need time to relax and be creative, we also need to be more intentional with our use of time during our regular workdays.

Part 2 focuses on two more ways we can stop entertaining time thieves in the new year.

Just as a reminder, the first two points were:

1. Live with an Eternal Perspective, and

2. Choose Activities with Purpose.

These last two points are just as practical and biblical.

3. Guard Time, because It Is Precious.

William Penn once said, "Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." Time is precious. If we do not guard it, time thieves will slip in to steal not just our time, but also our productivity and effectiveness for God and His good plans for our lives.

Guarding our time means we must first determine what matters to us and, more importantly, to God. We need to ask God for wisdom (James 1:5; Proverbs 2:6), and then obey what He says to do.

In our obedience to God, we may need to say "no" to others—or even ourselves.

Before COVID-19 and before my diagnosis, I loved to go shopping. I'm not talking about buying necessities; I'm referring to wasteful shopping. I'd meander up and down aisles, looking for sales, but more often than not, I bought things I didn't need. A jam-packed clothes closet testified to that. I only wore maybe 20% of the clothes in my closet.

A good dose of rational minimalism cured me of the shopping habit, and freed up my time (and money!) for better things.

In time, I found many other areas that stole my time.

Each of us likely needs to say "no" to unnecessary things so we can say "yes" to more things that fit our calling and biblical priorities, especially the priority of spending time with our Creator and with our key relationships (Matthew 6:33; Mark 12:30-31).

As we make our plans, we need to hold them loosely, allowing God to use, re-shape, or replace them according to His will. Truly, our "times"—whatever He allows to come into our lives—are in His hands (Psalm 31:15a). Guard your time. It is precious.

4. Strive for Excellence in All Things.

One key to not wasting time is focusing on a life of excellence. This is not the same as achieving perfection, which we won't accomplish until heaven (and even then, it's all God's doing, not ours).

Excellence is a mindset and approach to life that says we want to improve and do our very best. We don't want to be slackers!

Paul encourages Christ-followers in this regard.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God . . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Colossians 3:23; 1 Corinthians 10:31b; Romans 11:36, ESV).

That sounds like a Christian life lived with excellence to me!

There are many contrasts between people who are time wasters and those who strive for excellence. Here are just three contrasts.

(1) Time wasters are content to get by with less than their best so they'll have more time for endless, worthless pursuits.

Those who strive for excellence desire to discover and do all the things God has planned for them to do (Ephesians 2:10).

(2) Time wasters forget they are accountable to God for how they use time—whether it is used with excellence or with mediocrity.

Those who strive for excellence become more and more conscious that focused use of time matters, especially as we move toward the Lord's return (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Mark 13:33).

(3) Time wasters forget they only have a little while to obey God.

Those who strive for excellence know they must work for "the night is coming" when we will no longer serve God on earth (John 9:4). So they are more and more driven to share the gospel, build His Kingdom, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit in becoming more like Jesus.

Is it foolish to focus on wise use of time? Not at all.

The Bible tells us we will receive rewards or "crowns" for our lives of service and sacrifice for Christ. One crown in particular stood out to me as I meditated on the subject of time.

The Crown of Righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8) is for those who long for heaven—for Jesus' return. If we long for heaven, we will want to use our time wisely to please God, because we know we'll see Him soon!

The apostle Paul understood this. He rightly admonishes us in Ephesians 5:15-17 to redeem time:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity ... do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

Does this focus on time feel like a huge GUILT TRIP to you? Remember, there is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1).

But God wants us to grow in our understanding of how to wisely use our time.

(I said in Part 1 that I recognize I'm failing in this area. I've confessed it as sin. I am going to do better as God helps me. A good place to start is a forward-looking strategy for social media use.)

In this new year, my point is this: We ALL can pray for discernment and make better use of our time.

Are you guarding your time and striving for excellence? If not, how can you reclaim your time and invest it for the Lord and His glory? What changes could you make this week to "redeem the time"?

Dawn Wilson, founder and President of Heart Choices Today, is a speaker and author, and the creator the blog, Upgrade with Dawn. She is a contracted researcher/reviewer for women's teacher and revivalist, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth at Revive Our Hearts, and is a regular columnist at Crosswalk.com. She and her husband Bob live in sunny Southern California, and Dawn has traveled with Him in Pacesetter Global Outreach. They have two grown, married sons, three granddaughters and a rascally maltipoo, Roscoe.

 Graphics adapted, courtesy of PhotoMix-Company and Foto-Retusz at Pixabay.

Entertaining Time Thieves—Part 1

Happy New Year! So many make New Year's resolutions. I (Dawn) really do not. And yet, do I?

I've become aware that I have allowed "time thieves" to steal precious hours. One of my goals this year is to "redeem" (buy up) more time that I can use for the Kingdom of God. Hopefully, that is your desire as well.

In this Time Management UPGRADE (which has two parts), I want to help us focus on how we're spending our time. It's a huge topic and a little intimidating, but an important one in light of eternity.

Are you entertaining "time thieves"? What are they stealing, besides your time?

I recently spent two hours "scrolling." It went by so quickly, and I'll never get those two hours back.

I've noticed lately how much time I've spent on frivolous things, or on things that don't matter much in terms of eternity.

For example, as of May 2023, I have loaded 5,359 pins onto Pinterest into 127 categories. I have only once accessed these pins to actually USE any one of the entries!

Why on earth do I continue to load Pinterest pins that I will likely never use?

Yes, it's enjoyable. Yes, I appreciate a place to store things I see that I "like." And yes, I will probably store special recipes. But I've spent far too much time storing recipes I'll never use. It's like shopping for things we don't need.

Waste of time.

Another example. I spend hours on my iPhone scrolling through cute videos, informative videos, funny videos, shocking videos, tear-jerker videos, etc.

It's so easy to do. It's easy to vegetate with my iPhone rather than doing something productive.

Massive waste of time!

Yes, we need time to relax.

Yes, we need time to allow creative juices to form.

But we also need to BE CAREFUL not to waste vast amounts of time. 

Perhaps we might justify scrolling on our iPhone at an airport, waiting for a flight. Or at a doctor's office. But think about that. We have time to scroll, but not to read scripture on a scripture app, or memorize scripture on a memorization app?

God help us to stop justifying our "lack of time." God help me!

We rationalize that we don't have time for a special project—to clean out files, to draft an email, to clean our garage, to write a book or article, to write an encouraging note, etc.—but we had time to pin and scroll.

Unfortunately, many of us don't have a wise strategy for social media use. We so often want the easy-and-not-challenging thing, not the harder-but-more productive thing.

Why is this so important?

We think we have more time to do what's valuable and productive. But the Bible says, don't be so sure! James, Solomon, and Job said we can't be assured of what will happen tomorrow.

... you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. ... You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14 NIV)

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring (Proverbs 27:1 NIV).

My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles, and then the yarn runs our—an unfinished life! (Job 7:6 MSG)

One would think I would remember this, having gone through years of struggle for life after my Multiple Myeloma diagnosis.

How soon we forget about the brevity of life!

In light of our short lifespan, Paul encourages us to make "the best use" of our time.

How do we do that? How do we stop entertaining time thieves and make the very best use of our time?

1. Live with an Eternal Perspective.

As noted above, our life is a "mist," a vapor that quickly shows up and then vanishes, like steam rising from a teapot. We make great plans for our future on earth, but they may be cut short. We need to make every "today" count.

Realizing our time is short should help us stop spinning our wheels spiritually and make better choices. We'll want to be more conscious of what we spend time accumulating. We'll also want to consider what we will leave to those who follow us, and the example of time stewardship we are leaving them now.

Also important—living in light of eternity isn't simply a matter of not doing some things; we also won't want to miss any opportunities to go good.

2. Choose Activities with Purpose.

In order to use time wisely, we have to be purposeful. And in order to be purposeful, we need to ask ourselves some questions. Questions like: Why am I doing this? What value does this have for today? What value does this have for eternity? Is this developing my spiritual maturity or hindering it?

It's crucial to plan time purposefully rather than letting it slip through our fingers.

• Plan times of work (Colossians 3:23-24) with purpose. That plan includes doing our best for our earthly boss, remembering that we ultimately serve our heavenly Master. (If we work "for ourselves," that's good to remember too.)
• Plan times of rest (Mark 6:31; Psalm 127:2) with purpose. Plan to re-energize, nap, or "chill out." Plan regular vacations.
• Plan times to be creative with purpose, allowing creativity to bloom into beautiful and functional things to the glory of God (Proverbs 22:29).
• Plan times to shop with purpose—not spending indiscriminately but investing in worthy things, knowing our "wealth" comes from Him (1 Chronicles 29:12-14; 1 Timothy 6:17; Matthew 6:19-21).
• Plan time for growth—invest in personal spiritual growth (Colossians 1:9-10; 2:6-7; 2 Peter 1:5-8; 2 Peter 3:18) and in the lives of others (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 10:24).
• Plan time to meditate on the use of time, and consider what matters most to God and how we can spend more time on those things. Our time is His, a God-given resource, and He can help us use it best (Proverbs 16:9).

I'm sure you can think of other things to plan for.

The things we plan for will become our priorities, so we must live with intentionality. 

In Part 2, we'll consider two more ways to stop time thieves and make the most of our time.

Are you living with an eternal perspective and making wise choices for good time maneagement? If not, what changes can you make to live with intentionality?

Dawn Wilson, founder of Heart Choices Today, is the creator of Upgrade with Dawn. She works for Revive Our Hearts revival ministry and is a regular columnist at Crosswalk.com. She and her husband Bob live in sunny Southern California, and Dawn has traveled with Him in Pacesetter Global Outreach. They have two grown, married sons, three granddaughters, and a rascally maltipoo, Roscoe.

Graphics adapted, courtesy of PhotoMix-Company and Foto-Retusz at Pixabay.

3 Steps to Upgrade Your Time during the Holidays

Morgan Farr, an Army wife, has four children and a new puppy. You can imagine how she needs to wisely plan her days. But Morgan is one of the most organized gals I know. In this Christmas Time Management UPGRADE, she shares three steps that help her use her time wisely during the holiday season."When someone says—'Are you ready for the holidays?'—people often sigh and joke about all the things Santa has to get done with the help of his elves," Morgan says. "It seems the holidays produce a lot of anxiety and pressure for many people."

I (Dawn) remember what it was like to have two young boys as I rushed around preparing for Christmas. I could have used some of Morgan's expertise back then!

Morgan continues . . . 

As I have gotten older and become a mother, I realize the “magic of Christmas” is actually a lot of hard work by family members to help make the holiday season bright. 

But in the age of Covid, political unrest, racial tensions, and the rest of the challenges that 2020 has brought, how do you make the holiday season bright? 

And more importantly, how do you do it without having to add extra hours into your day?  

Step One: Get organized

The key to any good plan is structure and organization. 

Now before you panic, I am not saying you need an organized home in order to organize your time. What I am saying is that you need to start with a clear idea of what you need to do.

1. Weekly Planning Meeting

My husband and I have a weekly planning meeting every Sunday night. It doesn’t matter what is going on or if he is TDY with the military, we still connect for a minimum of 15 minutes every Sunday night to sync calendars, manage any scheduling conflicts, and discuss upcoming major events. 

This is also a good time to check on your family budget and make sure your finances are in order. If both parties come to the meeting prepared this should take no more than 30 minutes, but can help prevent major issues later in the week. 

2. Nightly List Write Up

Each night before I head upstairs for bed, I grab my 99 cent spiral notebook and make a to-do list for the next day. I use the same notebook each day so I can roll over any unfinished activities from the day prior if need be. 

This practice takes about 10 minutes total, but it saves me a lot of time the next morning, because I can just glance at the list to see what my next steps should be. It also helps to prevent me from freezing up and being unable to decide what to do next.

3. Daily Involvement 

Get the whole family involved in daily management tasks! Every single day, everyone in my family is involved in the daily aspects of helping to keep the house running. 

• My children help with sweeping, wiping counters, clearing the table, and taking out the trash every single day.
• When it is time to bring in groceries? You bet my kids help bring them inside and help put them away.
• Laundry? Everyone is responsible for putting away their own clothing. 

In the early years, this can seem counter productive, but if you want your children to do it when they are twelve, start with small tasks when they are two. This teaches responsibility while also helping to keep the house orderly.

Step Two: Out with the Bad, in with the Good 

We, as a society, fill our hearts and minds with the most ridiculous things.

We also waste a lot of time on things that have zero eternal significance while bemoaning the lack of time we have.

So to combat this I have a few simple recommendations. 

1. Cut the Cord 

Did you know that the average person spends five hours watching TV every single day? That translates to 35 hours a week—which is almost a full-time job! 

At the end of the holidays no one is going to be sitting there saying, “Man, I wish I had spent more family time watching Netflix.”

If you cut out even one hour per day of TV watching, that will give you back 7 hours in a week. That is almost a full workday! 

2. Use Caution 

I know that during the holidays it can be really tempting to sit on social media and scroll through everyone’s gorgeous family pictures. I love seeing how creative friends and family are with their holiday celebrations. 

However, in 2019, the average person spent an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media every single day! That is 15 hours a week on social media, often when our children should be doing other things like school and work. 

Scale back on your social media time. 

If you need help, most smartphones, tablets, and computers offer a way to set time limits on apps. Set a time limit for yourself or have someone hold you accountable. 

Ultimately, no one will remember if your place setting was perfect for Instagram, or if the gifts were wrapped Pinterest perfect.

What people will remember is spending time—safely during Covid—with the people they love.

Make sure you are giving the gift of your presence this holiday season, not just presents. 

Step Three: Remember the Reason

Finally, remember the reason the holiday even exists.

There are some excellent advent devotionals available for both children and adults. (*)

I have also found that listening to the book of Luke on an audio Bible is really good for my heart. There are 24 chapters in Luke and reading or listening to one per day for the month of December leads me through Jesus' life while I am celebrating His birth.  

[Note: There are many audio Bibles on YouTube. Here are three of the Book of Luke: (NKJV), (KJV), and (NIV).]

"Jesus is the Reason for the Season."

That is the saying you can find all over decorations and signs during the holiday. As Christians, we need to remember the entire point of Christmas is to celebrates the coming of Jesus Christ and His eventual redemption of our sins. 

What we focus on during this season says a lot about our faith and what we believe about the importance of Christ’s birth.

Let’s make sure we are honoring God with our advent celebrations. 

Which step can you take to help upgrade your time this holiday season?

(*) If you need recommendations for advent devotionals, feel free to send me an email at my blog link, below. ~ Morgan

Morgan Farr is a Texas-loving, succulent-cultivating, book nerd. Stationed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this Army wife is learning to train dogs, developing her four young children, and tackling homeschool life… while moving all over the country. Morgan writes about her transition away from feminism and much more at The Forgiven Former Feminist.

Why We Need Billy Graham's Perspective on Time

When I think about Debbie W. Wilson, I think of the word "refreshing." She encourages us to get a fresh perspective on things we take for grated. In this Biblical Thinking UPGRADE, she encourages a more biblical perspective on how we view and use our time.

"When a university student asked Billy Graham what had been the biggest surprise in his life," Debbie says, "he answered, 'My biggest surprise in life is its brevity.'”

I (Dawn) think that realization becomes more apparent the older we get. In day-to-day circumstances, we may forget to live in light of eternity. But life is short; what are we waiting for?

Debbie continues . . .

James agreed. He wrote to those bragging about their big plans for the future,  

“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14 NIV).

Job put it this way,

“My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles, and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!” (Job 7:6 The Message).

An adult mayfly has a lifespan of less than a day. In comparison with eternity, our lifespan is shorter than a mayfly’s.

Remembering this helps us live without regret.

Our family traveled I-40 from California to North Carolina. If you look at I-40 as representing eternity—which it feels like when you’re glued to the seat of a car with two small children wanting to escape the back seat—our lifespan covers less than 2 miles of I-40’s 2,555 miles.

Cultivating an Eternal Perspective

Remembering life’s brevity should shake us from our slumber. Are we living for the 20-mile stretch or for eternity?

Remembering the brevity of life changes us. It changes—

1. Our PURPOSE

Instead of bragging about my plans, I seek His plan for my life. He knows the future; I don’t.

I want to live for eternity.

2. Our DEFINITION of a Deal.

James rebuked the wealthy who got rich by not paying their workers on time.

“You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment” (from James 5:1-3 The Message).

If saving some cash cheats a sales person out of the fair compensation he needs to feed and shelter his family, it is not a good deal.

The wealth of those James rebuked became a source of shame when they faced death.

3. What we COLLECT

I love to decorate, but when our family moved to the Midwest for a two-year stint, we didn’t invest much time or money into our rental house. However, I willingly spent more on furnishings at a nearby antique auction for pieces I knew we’d move to our permanent home.

It would have been a waste to paint walls and plant shrubs in a place we were soon leaving.

When we set up our permanent home, we were thankful for the pieces we’d bought with our future in mind. 

It’s not wrong to store up treasure. We just need an eternal mindset to identify real treasure and to store it in the right place where it will not be corroded or have the power to corrupt us (Matthew 6:19-34).

4. The LEGACY We Leave

A cartoon showed a man standing before a storage unit with his son. The raised door revealed a space packed from floor to ceiling with stuff.

“This will all be yours one day,” the father beamed as his son grimaced.

What am I leaving behind? For what will I be remembered?

Billy Graham’s “brief” life on earth ended this year. His faithfulness to Christ during his 99 years blessed millions. I can only imagine the throngs of people who greeted him in heaven.

Our lives may not be as public as his, but our choice to live with an eternal perspective is just as valuable.

How does considering the brevity of life change how you live today?

Debbie W. Wilson—drawing from her personal walk with Christ, twenty-four years as a Christian counselor, and decades as a Bible teacher—speaks and writes to help others discover relevant faith. She is the author of Little Women, Big God and Give Yourself a Break. Share her journey to refreshing faith at her blog and website.

Graphic Adapted, courtesy of JaStra at Pixabay.

5 Questions to Decide What Deserves Your Time

In this Time Management UPGRADE, Julie Sanders helps us consider something we all have a lot of, but often misuse—our time.

"On a full plate, not everything is equal," Julie says. "The more options, the more important it is to decide what deserves our time. How can we plan for our priorities?"

The more I (Dawn) talk to women, the more I realize how full those plates are. My own is overflowing and needs some paring down, and I have to tell you – Julie's tips here really help!

Julie continues . . .

Your plate may overflow with feedings and laundry, deadlines and events, or presentations and correspondence. If we start each day hoping important things rise to the top, we risk drowning in a flash flood of urgency and emergency.

Whatever the parts of our busy life, we can’t afford not to plan to make our priorities first. Being in the place where we need to plan is a good place to be.

By learning to count time, measure resources and compare the weight of work, we learn wisdom. The Psalmist said, “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

Counterfeit priorities will beg for attention with a simple knock at the door or chime of the phone.

Ask 5 questions to plan for the main things to take the main chunk of your time and attention. First things first.

1. What can only I do?

Some tasks require my attention. Only I can be my husband’s wife and mother my children. When God directs me to a hurting person, only I can respond in the moment.

But I am not meant to answer every problem or be the savior for every need. Can someone else meet the need?

2. What can someone else do?

When we delegate a duty to someone else, we wisely use our time. I don’t have to do every load of laundry, return every call, teach every lesson or pray for every need.

Since resources are limited, I’ve learned to let go and let others share the load.

3. What can wait?

Someone else’s poor planning does not constitute an emergency for my schedule.

It may feel good to be the “answer” to a trauma, but being swept away by the urgent requires saying “no” to other things of value. Some things can wait. When weighing a request or responsibility, ask, “Can it wait?” 

4. What can be a process?

Deadlines present opportunities to plan ahead. Choose a tool that works for you to schedule times to make progress, and resist letting longer term projects turn into last minute problems.

5. What matters most to God?

When deciding what deserves our time, consider what matters most to God. What does He consider a “priority” and what can take a back seat or fall away?

This means priorities are constantly changing, in light of how God guides our steps, including the people He brings into our lives.

Hold tightly to what God cares about, but hold loosely to the order of business on your planner.

After all, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

We don’t know how many days we have. We do know each will be 24 hours, with 365 in every year. We can’t hope or plan to do it all.

First plan your priorities and your priorities will happen first.

Is the way you spend your time a real reflection of your real priorities? How could you plan to put first things first?

NOTE: Julie created an Alphabet Priorities printable bookmark—a helpful tool for sorting through what matters most. It's available here and here.

Julie Sanders speaks and writes with seasoned wisdom. Since moving to the Northwest with her husband, Julie is numbering her days in a new season of life. As the director of early learning programs across nearly 16,000 square miles of urban and rural country, she has daily opportunities to put first things first and live out God’s priorities. Julie writes from her online home, “Come Have a Peace.”