Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Gift of Time

The Christmas Season as wonderful as it is, not only heralds the celebration of the Christ child’s birth, but can serve as a poignant reminder that another year is fading. In between the hustle and bustle of Holiday preparation you take a mental inventory….deep sigh, “Where did this year go?”

Time...you can’t buy or steal it. Who knows if it really does any good to beg for it?????

It is amazing that as an educated society we are so controlled by an inanimate object known as the clock. Cuckoo birds sing about it, the fashion industry decorates it, and the stars record it - time.


Even God Himself used time to set boundaries. He stepped back from this creation and declared, "This is good."


Our mirrors, pictures, videos, hospitals, nursing homes, and cemetery markers serve as a constant reminder as to how fleeting time is. Our biological clocks are forever ticking in the background of our days and nights.

Time restraints ranks at the top of our stress lists. We stay up way too late and get up way too early trying to cram more of it into our lives. The demands of time wreak havoc in every arena.

We celebrate time with birthdays, anniversaries, Bar Mitzvahs, graduations, and feasts.

Regret is the painful reminder of how often we have misused and abused this gift. We curse, mourn, and recklessly wish it away. We are terrorized and tormented with it. The judicial system allows the guilty to be sentenced by it.

We allow the medical profession in their most educated guess to set terms and limits on our time. Multiple disease processes and trauma erases memories of it.

Time is like a shadow…elusive to the grasp. Unfortunately, after a night of frivolity, there are occasions we don’t even remember what we did with it. Time carries its'own load of  both lies and truths.

Managing time is an industry unto itself. They have designed day-timers, calendars, watches; and clocks to help us better organize our lives. Consultants are paid exorbitant amounts of money to help our companies better organize our time and make us more efficient. We can be penalized or compensated for our time.

Man’s own ingenuity has figured out a way to seemingly control and manipulate time. Man has devised a way to divide it into zones. Daylight Savings Time allows us to advance and reverse it. Typically we just waste it like the sands of the hourglass.

Men and women alike are looking for the fountain of youth to hide the ravages of time. Society has made it a criminal offense to reveal the truth of the amount of time you have lived here on earth. Time’s trademarks of wrinkles and gray hair are no longer symbolic of honor, but shame.

We are rarely satisfied with the dispensation of time that we have been allotted.

We spend endless amounts of money to insure it. We medicate, drown, ignore, and totally disregard the value of time. We take it for granted.

We carelessly spend it like there was no tomorrow and selfishly guard it like it was Fort Knox. We believe the lie that time is our enemy.

There is NOTHING..I REPEAT…NOTHING that escapes the effects of time, not even our eternal destiny.

Ultimately, time is the gift of God. In His all knowing wisdom if we had needed more or less of it don’t you think that He would have changed our portion? Time is a season for us to share, love, and to bring honor and glory to the ultimate Time Keeper.

At this late date, if you are still desperately seeking the perfect Christmas gift, turn life off and give the most expensive thing you have to offer—your time.

Prayer: Lord, please forgive me for believing my time was my own.

Without the gift of time I would NOT be writing this Blog, learning new computer programs, or about to launch a new website. Without a doubt, all of this would have been impossible.

Thank you to those who have given and offered so freely of their time and support. Thank you to their families who so generously shared their time.

Prayer is hard work and requires the sacrifice and investment of time. Thank you to the faithful intercessors who cover us with the 'fire by night and the cloud by day.'

Thank you to my Godly husband who has invested most of his lifetime supporting and encouraging me to go for the gold. My precious husband who unselfishly has given me his energy and time when he himself seems to be running on 'Reserve."

Thank you to the readers for your gift of time. With all of the choices available, I do not take for granted that you would take the time to visit Modern Orange and leave encouraging comments.

As I reflect on my own personal 'Time Account," I leave you with a few timely quotes.

The only gift is a portion of thyself.

Time the most precious gift one can give. Each moment is unique because it will never happen again…the gift of your time spent with others is the ultimate display of unconditional love.

“Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence—neither speed up, nor slow down, add to nor diminish—it is an imponderably valuable gift.” Maya Angelou

"Every morning you are handed 24 golden hours. They are one of the few things in this world that you get free of charge. If you had all the money in the world, you couldn't buy an extra hour. What will you do with this priceless treasure?" Author Unknown

"If there was ever a time to dare, to make a difference, to embark on something worth doing, IT IS NOW." Author Unknown, from Words of Encouragement for Teens

"Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time." Brian Tracy

"Time and words can't be recalled, even if it was only yesterday." Yiddish Proverb

"An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can't buy that inch of time with an inch of gold." Chinese Proverb

t-t-f-n (ta-ta-for-now)

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