On my way to work the other morning I thought about all the time I spent driving to/from work and taking our older son and his friend to/from youth group. We live just over 25 miles outside of town, so the commute is about 35-45 minutes each way. That night alone I spent just over an hour driving home, loading the car up with kids and dropping them off at youth group. The thought about how much time I “wasted” driving when I could have been doing something productive crossed my mind, but the Lord quickly corrected me in that thought, telling me the time was not “wasted”. He reminded me that the time I spent driving alone in the car was time spent with Him and the time with the kids was “family” time. The time could have been a waste had I not chosen to pray as I drove alone and then talk with the children as drove to youth group.
I realized at that time that we choose to have wasted hours in our day. We can either complain about the lemons in our life or make lemonade and create a profit from our choices. How much profit are you making with the lemons in your life? We make a choice about how we spend each minute of each day. If we choose to “waste” those minutes being unprofitable, then we cannot be called good stewards of what God has given us. He gives each person the same number of minutes in each day, and we choose how to spend or invest those minutes. It is a learning and growing process, as long as we learn from the “not so wise” choices, then those minutes have profited us too.
For example, how many people say they do not have time to pray each morning, but still have time to stop at the latte stand on the way to work? I know our local latte stands get mighty busy in the mornings, taking as much as ten or more minutes just to get through the line! What do you do while waiting in line? How about taking those few minutes and pray, meditate, and/or worship while in line.
How can you turn “wasted time” into “extra hours” in your life?