"Two men watched as a truck loaded with fresh green sod for a new house passed by. One of them remarked, ""Yea, some day when I'm rich I'm gonna send my grass out to have it cut too.
Most of us haven't reached the place of shipping out our yards to be cut, but some people do seem to find lots of ways to do yard work.
For example, do you really need all those bushes that require constant trimming? Could a slower growing grass work just as well? How often do you really need to rake leaves? Can you even tell the next day that you raked them? Ask yourself- ""What is the worst thing that will likely happen if I don't do this job?"" Ask, ""Is there anything else I could do with my time instead of this that would have greater benefit to the Kingdom of God?"" Finally, ask “Should I be doing this myself or could I pay a neighborhood boy or girl a few dollars to do this while I do something else?
Keeping a good yard is part of keeping a good testimony. But keeping a perfect yard is probably not redeeming the time.
"
"
On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game a young man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for UCLA. Picking up the loose ball, he lost his direction and ran sixty-five yards toward the wrong goal till one of his teammates tackled him just before he would have scored for the opposing team.
The story of ""Wrong Way Riegels,"" as he became known, gives us a picture of the way many people live today. They are moving full speed ahead toward some goal which they believe to be the right one, but in reality their goal is leading them in the wrong direction. The more furiously they run in that direction, the worse off they become, even if they think they are on their way to a touchdown.
Remember, whenever you are rushing toward a goal that is not in God’s plan for your life, it may give a moment’s excitement, but in the long run it can’t redeem the time.
"
"Someone noted, if you get the first button wrong on your shirt, the rest of them will be off as well.
That principle certainly applies to how we spend our time each day. It’s important to have a right beginning. There’s a saying that, “As goes the morning, so goes the day.” It’s true. If we start our day by spending time in Scripture meditation and prayer we start on the right track and stay on the right track. But when we start our day by playing tag with the snooze button and get up just in time to rush out the door for work, things can get out of line worse than a 3 year old’s button up shirt.
Maybe your day is out of sync right now. Before you go any further, undo the buttons and start over. Take the phone off the hook. Get alone with Lord and begin anew so you can still get to the end of your day having redeemed the time.
"
"James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, entertained friends by writing Greek with one hand and Latin with the other at the same time.
That's pretty amazing. But something even more amazing, is how many people fail to write down directions to a new place. When someone starts giving you directions, make it a habit to immediately grab your organizer or some piece of paper and write those directions down. Even if they say, ""Oh it's really simple."" remember its simple for them because they live there, but you don't. And when they say ""You can't miss it"" that's a sure clue you better you'd better write it down because you can miss it and you probably will unless you write it.
God wrote out His directions for us to get to heaven in the Bible because He didn't want us to miss it. Let’s follow His example so we don't waste time wandering around when we could be redeeming the time.
"