This morning, as I readied for work, I thought about the previous months.  A number of acquaintances and co-workers have passed from this life, all good people.  But none had obeyed the gospel.   One I knew died quite unexpectedly.  As I pass her earthly house each day, I think of all the time she spent on the affairs of this world.  Her plans for retirement.  It was always going to be someday she would get her affairs in order, but someday never arrived.  And then I think of my mother-in-law who passed from this life in March.  I remember the times we/I tried to teach her the plan of salvation, but as time went by, she developed dementia and didn’t know who I was on the day my husband died.  It was a terribly sad day for many reasons.  I thought to myself many times, why was time wasted?  Always the eternal why.  And I suppose the partial answer to this question is we never think our death will be today.  We tend to push it off in the future, putting off those things which are necessary to our salvation.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”   (Psalm 90:12)

“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:  Where as ye know not what shall be on the morrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”     (James 4:13-15)

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”   (Ephesians 5:16)

“Though even thinking on the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea.

As we look at a block of time, we see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525, 600 minutes, 31, 536, 000 seconds.  And all is a gift from God.  We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchase it.  Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of life.

The gift of time is not ours alone.  It is given equally to each person.  Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak – every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.

Another important thing about time is that you cannot stop it.  There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it.  Time marches on.

And you cannot bring back time.  Once it is gone, it is gone.  Yesterday is lost forever.  If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain.  We may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it.

Obviously, time is one of our most precious possessions.  We can waste it.  We can spend it on ourselves.  Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in the kingdom of God.

As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window, or will you make every minute count?”

“You may delay, but time will not”      ~ Benjamin Franklin

Eileen Light