Our Bible verse for today: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.” Psalm 39:4-5 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “A gift of time is an act of love”
For over thirty years I’ve had a little brass hourglass sitting on my desk. It’s filled with sand and when you turn it over the grains of sand slowly sift through the narrow neck in the middle, gathering in the cylinder on the other end. It’s about 75 years old and was one of those little gifts that a bank gave away to new customers. The label on the top says “Time Savings and Loan Association, 2nd and Broadway, San Diego”. That bank existed from 1885 into the 1950s before it was bought-out by a larger bank.
I find it interesting that a bank would give their customers a keepsake hourglass. It reminds me of those wise old words, “How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money.” It also reminds me of Benjamin Franklin’s challenging question, “Do you value your life? Then value your time, because time is the stuff that life is made of.” That right there is exactly why I keep this hourglass on my desk – to remind me to use my time well.
Your life is made up of your time, and you only get so much of it. Also, once the time is gone you can never have it back. Therefore, as Benjamin Franklin so wisely observed, the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years are all little pieces of your life and once you’ve used them, those pieces of life are gone forever, so use them wisely.
When you give a person some of your time, you’re giving them a little piece of your life. If you think about it that way, and then if you intentionally decide to give them that piece of your life anyway, that’s an act of love. It’s a way of telling them that they are important to you and worthy of receiving some of your time, worthy of receiving a little piece of your life.
We can demonstrate love for people by spending time with them rather than devoting that time to someone else, or to something else. This is an important understanding, so we’re going to explore it a little more tomorrow.
Oak Hill Baptist Church