Golf Club

There is an old story about a Scotsman who engaged in a golf match with a well-dressed stranger. No one introduced himself. They just agreed to play together, settled on a small wager, and started playing.

As fate or skill would have it, the Scotsman won, and it was time to pay up. The stranger said, "I have no money, but I am the King of England. Ask for whatever you want."

The Scotsman looked at his worn out driver and said: "I'd like a new golf club." The stranger said: "I'll send it in a month."

A month later the King’s horseman came delivering an envelope. The Scotsman opened it. It wasn't a driver. It was the deed to a new 18-hole golf course and a note telling him he could claim it any time he wished.

What does this have to do with you? The One who made you is willing to do more for you than you can ask or think.

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We must learn to

stop wasting time

being busy.

For some reason, many people have a misguided need to be busy as a way of justifying their existence. 

Evaluate your time wasters.  These are activities you do on a regular basis that you don’t particularly enjoy and that don’t produce any meaningful benefits. This could be anything from sitting in front of the television, to surfing the Internet, to creeping on your friends on Facebook, to tinkering in the garage. Once you’ve recognized the activities that take a good chunk of your time, you can take steps to change your behavior.  You don’t necessarily have to eliminate them, but you do have to moderate them.  Some things are not necessarily wrong, they’re just not necessary.  However, if it is a purposeful use of your time to relax and rejuvenate, then by all means, use it to sharpen your axe.  But be purposeful. 

Pause for just a moment and think about how much time you waste on petty things…

Suppose you lived your life as if the next moment or the next day was your last, then how differently would you live?  What’s on your list of petty things to stop doing as of right now?  

An excerpt from Making the Most of Your Time on Earth by D. Kirk Buchanan.  Available at your favorite online bookstore beginning February 1, 2013.

This New Year’s Day

With the New Year comes the renewal

Of Hope and peace to be found

The comfort and mercies we're granted

Opportunities, blessings abound

.

Because His plan is so divine

We're each given a brand new page

To start anew, me and you

Upon a brand new stage

.

We have the chance before us

To each play a different role

Reach out and show more kindness

Become a kinder, gentler soul

.

Our time to set better examples

Of what we'd wish others to see

And make our own mark while giving

Compassion and kindness, generosity

.

We all make resolutions this day

Some we keep, but not the others

The ones we find benefiting ourselves

But not so much for all our brothers

.

We tend to put ourselves first

Instead of taking into account

Those that are so less fortunate

And are living life without

.

Let us not be so judgmental

Unless we're willing to change shoes

With those still struggling for solutions

Today, and all year through.

 (c) 2012 Daisie Fields

Evaluate Your Time Wasters

There’s no such thing as spare time.  The time you get is all the time you've got.  Do something good with it!

Evaluate

 your  

      time wasters.

While you can’t “save” time, you can certainly “waste” time.  Wasting time can occur when you spend it on the quick and easy instead of the important.  But if it’s quick and easy it’s not really wasting much time is it?  Hmm.  I wonder how many hours of wasted time occur over a lifetime in two or three minute intervals. 

Sometimes the important things are big.  Sometimes the urgent (and not so important) things are small.  As a result, we’re tempted to get the small things out of the way first.  In reality, they’re not really even in the way.  They’re just there.  What if, instead, we break up the big important things into smaller “sub-tasks” and diligently apply ourselves to them? 

Now, instead of being flabbergasted by the difficulty of a large task (and thus doing nothing), we can more easily handle each of the sub-tasks proficiently.

The mental effect of “too-big” is overwhelming.  It’s way too difficult to manage something like that and so you won’t.  Instead, you’ll just end up wasting time agonizing over it.  Break it up for your mental health and happiness, as well as your productivity.

Sometimes the big important things aren't any fun.  As a result, we’d rather do something else instead.  I understand.  It happens to me all the time.  Sometimes it’s just hard to get motivated to do what we know needs to be done.  The key is to find out what motivates you, and then use that motivation to propel yourself forward. 

Motivation begins with understanding your God-given purpose.  If the goals you've set for yourself do not line up with God’s purpose for your life, you’re guaranteed to eventually fail. Hopelessness feeds on itself and will sink your productivity and cause you to spend your time on anything but the right thing.

Think of time as an asset that like money must be managed well. If it is squandered it‘s just like making a bad investment. And it is because you have wasted it.   If we’re truly going to make the most of our time on earth, we have to stop valuing busyness as a positive thing.  Busyness gets in the way of productivity.

We must learn to

stop wasting time

being busy.

For some reason, many people have a misguided need to be busy as a way of justifying their existence. 

Evaluate your time wasters.  

An excerpt from Making the Most of Your Time on Earth: The Clock is Ticking... by D. Kirk Buchanan (coming soon - expected release date Jan. 2013).

www.ClairinchPress.com

The clock is ticking...

Have you ever tried to “save” time? You can’t. Time ticks by at the rate of one second per second. Always. And once that second has elapsed, it’s gone.

F  o  r  e  v  e  r .

If you find a shortcut for a given task that reduces the amount of time it takes to complete that task, you may say that you've “saved” time, but unless you immediately use the time following the completion of the task to accomplish another God-given purpose, the seconds just simply continue to tick by. You can’t save them for later. You can only choose what to “spend” each second doing. You can allocate your time to certain tasks, manage the amount of time you spend on certain tasks, but the total amount of time you have is the same regardless of how much of it you spend doing one thing or another. Your time here on earth is finite.

I know this sounds extremely philosophical, but it’s really quite practical. You must use your time to accomplish the important things or else the important things will not get done, because time will run out.

Don’t let the urgent take the place of the important in your life.

I think one of the most difficult things in life when it comes to maximizing the use of our time is making the conscience choice to do the important things instead of the urgent things, or the quick and easy things.

An excerpt from Making the Most of Your Time on Earth: The Clock is Ticking... by D. Kirk Buchanan (coming soon - expected release date Jan. 2013).

www.ClairinchPress.com

Loving Jesus

How can you know if you love Jesus? Of course you, along with most everyone else, have good feelings about Him. You are thankful that Jesus came to earth, helped people, taught great truth, healed the sick, and fed the hungry. You are even thankful that Jesus died on the cross, and you believe He rose again. You might even be the type of person who gets emotional while singing worship songs. Does any of that mean that you love Jesus? 

After Peter’s denial, Jesus arranged a special time of restoration for Peter. During the unofficial restoration ceremony, Jesus tied Peter’s love for Him to a simple action: feed my sheep. In other words, loving Jesus is not about feeling good about Him, it is about obeying His commands and serving Him. Peter was called to a life of ministry, so Peter’s best display of his love for Jesus was by feeding (pastoring, ministering to, etc.) sheep (the people of God).

The best way for us to love Jesus is by doing what He asked us to do. Jesus asked every believer to DO SOMETHING like witness, give, serve, and spend time in Bible study and prayer among other things. Each of us, however, must also SEEK OUT what Jesus wants us to do that isUNIQUE. Jesus has a ministry for you, and the best way to love Him is by giving yourself to it completely. 

Jesus is not into empty praise. He wants to know if you mean what you say. There will be days when you do not feel a close connection to Jesus. There will be days when you are not really sure what you should do. There will be days when serving Jesus costs you greatly. Make the most of them! Love Him and serve Him regardless.

www.makingthemost.org