Using our time wisely, pt. 1

Three questions should be asked about every new activity that presents itself: (1) Is it worthy of our time? (2) What will be eliminated if it is added? (3) What will be its impact on our family life?

Dr. James Dobson, What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew about Women, p. 54

I have a little calendar that sits in my kitchen on a rolling cart. Each page contains the date, a quote and verse that gives me a little food for thought throughout my day. Last month this quote came up along with the verse from Psalm 90 that says, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Usually, I’ll remember to flip the page and take a quick look at the words as I’m leaving the kitchen – not thinking too hard on the passage given. But for some reason this one stuck with me.

I found two questions nagging my brain… 1. What DO we do with our time? (we never seem to have enough of it) and 2. Are we missing out on some wonderful opportunities?

Most people would immediately get from this quote that they may be spending too much of their time ‘doing stuff’ and not enough time fellowshipping within the family. While certainly I do feel we neglect things like prayer and study and worship together much more than we should – for us, it’s not because we are too busy. It’s because we’re too lazy. I am a lazy selfish person at times. As is my husband (not nagging about my husband here, ladies) And so are the kids we are raising. What do they see? Mom on the computer in the evenings, Dad watching sports on tv, brother playing the video game… we all want our ‘me time’. And by taking it, we neglect our ‘we time’.

So 1. I discovered that we waste our time doing meaningless things, day in and day out. I’m not saying it’s horrid to ever watch television, play video games or compute. But there’s a little thing called moderation and let me tell you, it’s a foreign thing around these parts.

Next, this quote brought guilt and grief to my heart for all the things that I neglect (and my children miss out on) because they seem to be too inconvenient. Or for my more socially anxious side, too alien. I do tend to let my fears drive me when it comes to activities. The question for our homeschool isn’t “are we doing too much?” It’s “are we doing enough?” I know they’ve missed out on things they would’ve loved only because I could come up with a million reasons why we needed to stay home. They’ve missed playdates with friends, homeschool group activities and just plain fun.

So secondly, I discovered that there are plenty of things we aren’t doing that is definitely worth our time. That most of what would be eliminated is the wasting of time. And what would be the impact? Well I’m sure the kids would love it if we did more things with our groups and friends. I think we’d all benefit from being more active in our neighborhood – sharing Jesus’ love through hospitality and service. Gaining wisdom and knowledge through interaction with all His creations, from people to places to things. I can’t think of a better way to spend a day!

So how do we go from couch potatoes to Christ’s doers? We’ll cover that more later on this week. For now, I’d like you to think about what You do with your time. As a family… as a homeschool. Are you wisely utilizing the time God has given you or do you plunder it away? Should you make a list of your activities and weed some out or work harder at adding some in?

Make a few mental notes for next time – and for now, try to be aware of what you do with your time all day. Ask yourself if what you are doing is worthy… what will be eliminated by doing it… and how it will impact your family.

til then,

Sara O’

You can find pt. 2 of this post here.