Editor’s Note: You can read the previous articles in this series below:
The Challenge of Stewarding Our Time Wisely
Stewarding Our Time Wisely Honors God
In our current series of articles, we’re examining the benefits of using our time wisely. In our first article, we discussed how time is a valuable resource that can be a challenge for parents of young children to manage wisely. In our last article, we discussed how wisely stewarding our time honors God. Scripture tells us that our days on earth are limited and commands us to live wisely:
For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Ps 90:9-10
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Eph 5:15-16
While honoring God is reason enough to seek to steward our time wisely, there are also benefits to our families as well. Managing our time well ensures that we’re taking care of all of our essential God-given responsibilities, investing in the right priorities, and also enjoying the many things he’s blessed us with in life.
Wisely Stewarding Our Time Blesses Our Families
There are many aspects of family life that take up a large portion of time that are necessary to daily life: cooking, eating, bathing, cleaning, changing diapers, grocery shopping, working, sleeping, schooling, driving, etc. There are many things that are not necessary, but can be beneficial: sports, entertainment, vacations, etc. That’s not even talking about spiritual disciplines that are necessary to the spiritual health of your family.
How do we make sure we keep the right balance between all of these areas? It takes intentionality to make sure you aren’t letting trivial things crowd out true priorities.
Intentionality and “Flexible Structure”
As I’ve mentioned, the Bible doesn’t spell out specific time allotments we’re bound by, so I’m not going to give out a concrete set of recommended time allotments for our families. We have freedom in the Lord to do what we think is best for our family. Each family is different and has different needs.
What I am going to recommend is being intentional with your time as you wisely consider what is best for your family. And, by that, I’m also not advocating for 100% productivity. You don’t need to be working 100% of the time getting things done to be using your time wisely. Many important things don’t actually have measurable productivity results. For example, a mom spending time playing with their toddler. How do you measure the ROI on that? You can’t, but it’s important.
The first question to ask is: Are you spending your time intentionally? This gets really hard with kids, especially when you have multiple kids. Sometimes you feel like you are just treading water keeping them fed and alive. Once you add in school, homework, discipline, etc. it feels like you are barely getting everything done.
One of my friends used the term “flexible structure”when discussing how he manages his time and I really like that. I’m not saying that your life needs to be micromanaged down to the minute, but implementing some structure to your time is wise. The flexible component of this is knowing that life is not predictable, especially with kids. Having a broad intention of how you want to spend your days, weeks, months, and years is important, but having the flexibility to make changes or roll with the punches in real-time is crucial.
Even something as simple as getting out of the house can be unpredictable with a baby. After our first baby was born, our first big outing was going to Target when he was a few days old. It took almost an hour to get out of the house because we had to feed him, change his diaper, change his clothes, clean up his spit up, change his spit up covered clothes, clean up a diaper blowout in his carseat, change his diaper again, and change his clothes for the third time. Being flexible is key to being a parent. If we had scheduled our day down to the minute, we would have been extremely frustrated by being so behind schedule getting to Target.
On the other hand, if you’re 100% flexible and you just go with the flow without any structure, your family may miss out on the blessings that come from intentionally using your time.
There are many important areas of life that can get crowded out if you don’t intentionally plan for them:
- Worship/Church – Ensure church is a priority even when life is crazy busy and you’re tired.
- Family Time – Ensure that work isn’t prohibiting you from spending quality time with your spouse or kids.
- Fellowship/Building Friendships – Make time to build relationships with other believers.
- Serving – Use your spiritual gifts and talents to bless others in the church.
- Enriching Activities – Help your kids grow through experiences like music lessons, sports, etc.
As some Christian couples have babies, they become so overwhelmed or tired that they neglect attending church for long periods of time. I’m not saying you need to go straight to church from the delivery room, but letting tiredness crowd out regular attendance on Sunday mornings is detrimental to your spiritual health.
If you think of time as a resource, like money, you can think of where you choose to spend your time as making investments. You should consciously invest your time where it will benefit you and your family the most. By intentionally evaluating where you’re spending your time and planning accordingly, you can bless your family by making time for true priorities (like church) or non-essential beneficial things (like music lessons or sports).
In our final article in this series, we’ll look at how wisely stewarding our time can benefit our own spiritual and physical health.
