"Back in the 1800's the Tates Watch Company of Massachusetts decided to market compasses for pioneers traveling west.
It turned out that although Tates watches were of finest quality, their compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California. This, of course, is the origin of the expression, ""He who has a Tates is lost!""
While that story may not be historically correct, the lesson that he who hesitates is lost is certainly a valid time management principle. We often miss the will of God because we come to a point where we hesitate to obey God’s direction and we loose out on getting God’s best as a result. What is the one thing right now that you’re hesitating on? An important phone call? Could it be speaking to a neighbor or coworker about the Lord? Whatever it is, remember that hesitation in doing the known will of God will result in lost opportunities. Choose instead to do it now and redeem the time.
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"An Alaskan farmer needed to build a fence and wanted the job done quickly. Each day, as the thawing of the ground permitted, he choped away at the frozen land to dig his post holes. He kept steadily at it, each day digging just a little deeper through the hard frozen earth. Finally, after a long spring, and with great frustration and many sore muscles, he finished digging the last hole.
That same day, his neighbor, having waited till the ground was ready, also put up his new fence posts, all of them in one day, the same day the first farmer finished his.
Sometimes we’re like that first farmer. We’re so eager to get going on a project we don’t wait on God’s timing. One example might be child training. We want to see our five year old succeed so badly we’ll spend days teaching them something they could grasp in a few minutes as an eight year old. God said “To every thing there is a season”. Being careful to wait on God’s timing is an important part of redeeming the time.
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"FOUR SEASONS
Someone made the observation that just as there are four seasons of the year, so there are four seasons of life.
First, we are children to our parents. Then we become parents to our children. With the passing of time we become parents to our parents. Finally we become children to our children.
The striking thing about these seasons is how quickly they pass, how rapidly we move from one season of life to the next. James in Scripture says, “What is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanish away. Which of life’s four seasons are you in today? Children of your parents, parents of your children, parents to your parents, or children to your children. Once we understand the brevity of life we have a powerful motivation to redeem the time.
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"Five years from now where will you be and what will you be doing? If the answer is, “I want to be doing something different from what I am doing now, the question becomes, “How will you spend time today to move you in that direction.”
God has a purpose and plan for each of our lives. But we don’t just happen to stumble on to that plan without effort. Becoming all God wants us to be involves spending time each day to move us in the direction of our goals. If we see a big discrepancy between where we say we want to be in five years and how we are spending today, we need to carefully examine our lives to see if we really are using our time the way God wants us to.
So, before you go to bed tonight, take 10 minutes to write out what you think God wants you to be doing five years from now. Then, plan how you’re going to redeem the time.
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