How Do You Spend Your Time?

Our time is ours to spend as we choose, wisely or poorly. 

To know how it is spent, it is a good idea to take a time inventory every once in a while. I recently did that at work.

For 2 months I charted how I spent my hours at work. 

I wrote down the amount of time I spent in doing the following: administration, study, pastoral care, women’s ministry, children’s ministry, and small groups. I went over the numbers with my boss. Turns out I’ve been spending my time well.

Dr. C. C. Albertson calculated that the average person spends their life in the following ways:

“There are 168 hours in each week.

• 56  of these we spend in sleep.
• Of the remaining 112 hours, we devote 48 to labor.
• This leaves 64 hours, of which let us assign 12 hours for our daily meals. This allows 30 minutes for each meal, and 1½ hours extra to promote good digestion.
• We have left 52 hours, net, of conscious active life to devote to any purpose to which we are inclined. Is it too much to say that God requires a tithe of this free time?

One tenth of 52 hours is 5.2 hours. How much of this tithe of time do we devote to strictly religious uses?

• If we attend church twice on Sunday, that will take 1 hour.
• If we attend prayer meeting, another hour.
• We have two-tenths of an hour left, our little margin—shall we not stay for the Morning Watch?

But when we review our lives, how few of us attend religious worship thus regularly!” Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : A treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers. Garland TX: Bible Communications

I’d like to do a time inventory of my personal time as well. I wonder how well it will match up with Dr. Albertson’s calculations? I have a feeling my free time is not balanced. Go to this link to see a chart of possible categories. Just looking at the possibilities makes me fret. I feel like I don’t have time to do it all. I think I don’t have enough time left in my life to do anything else well.

But Edward H. Griggs says, “Fifteen minutes a day devoted to one definite study will make one a master in a dozen years.”  I can do 15 minutes a day. I will most likely live 12 more years.

Question is, what shall I spend those 15 minutes on? I need to remember that my times are not in my hands. God has a plan for my time. So it would be wise to ask for His input.

How will you spend your 15 minutes a day for the next 12 years?

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