By Johnny O. Trail 
I was recently privileged to speak with a school counselor about what she sees in her job.  We would do well to listen to Christian people who have made it their career to work with children.  “I saw a mother come pick her child up from school the other day.  The child was so proud of what she had done regarding a project that was recently graded and returned.  The child had made an ‘A’ on the paper, and she was trying desperately to show her mother her good work.  Unfortunately, the mother was on her cell phone, and she scolded the child for interrupting her text messaging.  I wanted to stop that mother and urge her to pay attention to her child and the child’s accomplishments.”  After sharing this vignette, she stated, “Children need our time.  They need to know that we care and are interested in their lives.  Some parents are so busy that they are missing their children’s lives.  We need to spend time with them at home and at the dinner table.  They need our time.”  As a marriage and family counselor, I could not agree more.
The inventor Thomas Edison said, “Time is the most important thing in the world.”  Time can heal so many wounds, it can restore broken marriages and severed relationships, but time cannot be recalled once it is gone.  Time that is properly used can be extremely profitable in business, in developing relationships, and in building families.
Time is brief and uncertain in nature.  Scripture teaches that God’s people must be careful in regards to their use of time.  Ephesians 5.15-16 says, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”  Psalm 39.4 says, “”O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!”  Psalm 90.12 teaches, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  Proverbs 27.1 warns “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”
Since scripture warns about the brief nature of time, we should endeavor to make the most of the time we have.  The brevity of life motivates many to organize their daily routines.  Time is so valuable that it should not be wasted with things that are useless in their final summation.
The only things that will endure time are spiritual in nature.  Several hundred years from now most people will be a simple name in a census or on family tree with a date of birth and a date of death.  Our wealth, our homes, and all of our material things will have decayed or belong to someone else.  The important things that we take with us or leave behind are the spiritual truths we have gained and taught to our families and friends.  Spiritual discernment and dissemination can endure the ravages of time and the mortality of life.
No, we cannot take our possessions with us, but we can take other people.  As Christians and members of families, we should desperately want to take our parents, our children, our friends, and every person that we contact in our lives.  The only way we can be successful in taking other people to heaven with us is by giving them our time.
If we want to have a Christian home with faithful children, we must spend time with them.  Their interests might not always be something that we want to do, but it means the world to a child that you simply took the time to participate in their hobby.  They are delighted that you watched a good movie with them.  They are thrilled that you had a “tickle fight” with them.  It makes their day when you take time out of your busy schedule to come to their school and bring them lunch.  They want your undivided attention and your time.  Read the Bible, do devotionals, and pray with them.  Give your children hugs and kisses regularly.  When you spend any time with them, you can share spiritual truths and seek out teachable moments, so that you can have eternity with them after this short life is over.
Furthermore, do not wait for a better time to communicate with the people you love.  Tell them how you feel.  Tell them that you are “proud of them.”  Find a way to complement them every day—even when they have let you down.  Tell them that you “love” them.
Yesterday is gone and will never return.  Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any person (James 4.13, 14; Proverbs 27.1).  The only time that we have mastery of is in the here and now (Hebrews 3.13, 7, 8; II Corinthians 6.2).  We need to take advantage of every moment so that we might serve the Master in all things.