Appreciating The Value Of Time

If we have a clock or watch available with a secondhand on it, stop and follow that hand as it ticks away one minute. Those 60 seconds are the way we measure time, and time is the very essence of our lives. By the time we reach the age of 75, the clocks and watches of this world will have ticked away a total of nearly 2.5 billion seconds.

Bernard Berenson, an internationally famous art critic and historian, had a zest for life. Even when he was in ill health, he cherished every moment. Shortly before he died in 1959 at the age of 94, he stated to a friend, “I would willingly stand at street corners, hat in hand, asking passersby to drop their unused minutes into it.”

Oh, that we would learn to appreciate the value of time! See YouTube video.

Now we certainly don’t want to be so time-conscious that we become driven workaholics, neglecting our families, never relaxing with our friends, too busy to smell the roses or admire a sunset. Yet Paul tells us that if we’re wise, we will “redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:15-16 KJV), and Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

Dear reader, let’s ask the Lord to help us better appreciate the value of time. May we wisely invest our seconds, minutes, hours, and days, realizing that beyond our last second of time, lies eternity.

We do not know how long we have
Till time for us is past,
So let us live as if this day,
Will be our very last —M. Riley (see article)

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets