Exchanging Time

Former procrastinators, use of our time involves making choices among possibilities. As I talk about giving time for the gym, think of your own choices. We exchange time for something.

Maybe you are wrestling with how to justify reading to the kids when there are so many chores to do. Or how to manage weekly coffee with a friend when your desk is piled with work. What to choose? That is the dilemma.

You and I may struggle in different areas. We may come to different conclusions based on different considerations. We take our deliberations to the Lord and ask Him to cast His light on the subject especially for our personal application in how to choose.

One thing that helped me accept morning exercise was recognizing that I sometimes squandered a morning hour on computer websites with no benefit at all. Zip. Zero. How can I say I can’t take time to exercise when I take the same time for mindless, meaningless wandering? A poor exchange indeed.

So I am choosing to give up some valuable morning time – my peak brain time– to exercise. That is when I can be faithful to do it and thus receive the advantages. I must exchange some prime time for needed benefits.

So far, I see these good results:

Cooperating with the Lord in taking care of the body He’s given me to use

Sleeping more deeply and longer

Having more physical energy all day

Being more mentally alert all day

These effects mean I’m actually getting extended prime time! Nice.

My cousin pays for a personal trainer at the gym. She says, “I can either pay her or pay the doctor.” She exchanges time and money for healthful efforts to avoid exchanging time and money for the costs of poor health.

Her husband has this quotation in his office:

“This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it – or use it for good, but what I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it! When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, and not loss; good, and not evil; success, and not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price that I have paid for it.” Dr. Heartsill Wilson

What are you exchanging the minutes of your day for today?