Budgeting Our Time
The author of Ecclesiastes gives insights on values. He encourages the reader to use time wisely by making right choices.
God has planned a time for every thing and every action. Our choices should reflect what we value.
The central principle of all personal organization of time is simple: time must be budgeted!
Most of us learned this about money a long time ago. When we discovered that we rarely had enough money to do all the things we wanted to do with it, we found it prudent to sit down and think through our financial priorities.
When money is limited, one budgets. And when time is in limited supply, the same principle holds. The disorganized person must have a budgeting perspective. And that means determining the difference between the fixed - what one must do - and the discretionary - what one would like to do. . .
Years ago my father wisely shared with me that one of the great tests of human character is found in making critical choices of selection and rejection amidst all of the opportunities that lurk in life's path, "Your challenge," he told me, "will not be in separating out the good from the bad, but in grabbing the best out of all the possible good." He was absolutely correct. I did indeed have to learn, sometimes the hard way, that I had to say no to things I really wanted to do in order to say yest to the very best things.
. . . If we are to command our time, we will have to bite the bullet and say a firm but courteous no to opportunities that are good but not the best.
Once again that demands, as it did in the ministry of our Lord, a sense of our mission. What are we called to do? What do we do best in our time? What are the necessities without which we cannot get along? Everything else has to be considered negotiable: discretionary, not necessary.
-From Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
Reflect on your use of time. What activities require more time than they are worth? What relationships could use a bigger time investment? How could you use time with your family better? After you evaluate your schedule, reorganize it so that it accurately reflects your priorities.
God has planned a time for every thing and every action. Our choices should reflect what we value.
The central principle of all personal organization of time is simple: time must be budgeted!
Most of us learned this about money a long time ago. When we discovered that we rarely had enough money to do all the things we wanted to do with it, we found it prudent to sit down and think through our financial priorities.
When money is limited, one budgets. And when time is in limited supply, the same principle holds. The disorganized person must have a budgeting perspective. And that means determining the difference between the fixed - what one must do - and the discretionary - what one would like to do. . .
Years ago my father wisely shared with me that one of the great tests of human character is found in making critical choices of selection and rejection amidst all of the opportunities that lurk in life's path, "Your challenge," he told me, "will not be in separating out the good from the bad, but in grabbing the best out of all the possible good." He was absolutely correct. I did indeed have to learn, sometimes the hard way, that I had to say no to things I really wanted to do in order to say yest to the very best things.
. . . If we are to command our time, we will have to bite the bullet and say a firm but courteous no to opportunities that are good but not the best.
Once again that demands, as it did in the ministry of our Lord, a sense of our mission. What are we called to do? What do we do best in our time? What are the necessities without which we cannot get along? Everything else has to be considered negotiable: discretionary, not necessary.
-From Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
Reflect on your use of time. What activities require more time than they are worth? What relationships could use a bigger time investment? How could you use time with your family better? After you evaluate your schedule, reorganize it so that it accurately reflects your priorities.
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