Your Time Bank

For a child, time is difficult to quantify. For example, when our daughter, Abbey, was 4 years old, we would use a purple dinosaur named “Barney” to explain how much time needed to elapse before a desired event would occur. You see, this purple character appeared regularly on our TV via video tapes. The programs lasted exactly 30 minutes. So, while traveling, whenever Abbey would ask, “Are we there yet?” If we would arrive in about an hour, we would answer “In about two ‘Barney’s.”

Our five year old son has to be answered in a similar manner whenever an anticipated event is several days away. His favorite unit of measurement is “sleeps.” So, as Christmas approached, we would have to inform him of the number of sleeps before he would awake on Christmas morning. Two days until Christmas equals two “sleeps.”

As we enter a new year, let me remind you that you will have the same number of “sleeps” and “awakes” as everyone else. Well-known Christian writers, Max Lucado and David Jeremiah, who seem to publish a book every 2 weeks, have the same amount of time as I do. You have the same amount of time in this year as the most successful folks in the world.

There are 8760 hours in each person’s annual calendar “bank.” How will they be used? My prayer is the hours I spend this year will be an encouragement to others and will bring glory to God. In Ps. 90:10, the Bible says that our days are “soon cut off, and we fly away.” Our “sleeps” and “awakes” pass faster than a truck with a Hemi. So, use your days, and “sleeps,” in ways that please God.