"“I can’t believe I married such a lazy bum” exclaimed Bob’s wife as he began watching the fourth hour of TV. To which bob replied, “I’m not being lazy, I’m just energy efficient.”
In reality, Bob, like most lazy people, didn’t think he was lazy. He had found clever ways to rationalize his behavior. Almost no one thinks of themselves as a lazy person. That’s because laziness is one of the easiest character weaknesses to rationalize. The proverbs give an example of this in chapter 22 where it states, the lazy man says “there is a lion outside, I’ll be slain in the streets if I go out there”. That is a picture of a lazy man using his energies to rationalize his own laziness.
Nearly all of us are lazy to some degree in some situations. By identifying where and when you are tempted to laziness, you can expose the rationalizations you use to continue that laziness. You really can become energy efficient not by being lazy, but by redeeming the time.
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"Maine is the only state in America whose name is only one syllable. I don’t know if that was one of the considerations that went into picking the name, but it certainly is a nice benefit.
Keeping names of places, things, and even people short and simple can save a lot of time over the long run. Imagine how much time has been spent over the past 250 years with people asking “How do you spell Massachusetts?”
Get in the habit of using initials or abbreviations for longer terms or titles. Instead of the Administrative Operations Center, call it the AOC. The church Family Life Center can be the FLC. Even at home the “living room” can be the “den.”
Shortening titles may only add seconds to your day, but it does create a momentum that says, “Let’s get as much done as we can in the time we have.” It helps us set a pace that maximizes our time for the Lord and helps us redeem the time.
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"""Can you help me? I've locked my keys in my car."" A lady told a policeman. The officer carefully bent a coat hanger, fed it through the window, and was moving it back and forth to catch the lock when suddenly, her friend sitting in the passenger seat said, ""A little more to the left officer.""
The officer’s time could have been spent catching bad guys that morning if the driver had simply taken the time to hide a spare key. Keeping a spare key in your wallet or purse or hiding a spare key in a well hidden key box on the vehicle can be real time saver. Nearly all of us will someday lock the keys in the car or lose the key when traveling. It happened to me just two weeks ago.
Preparing a spare key is one of those things that only takes a minute, but could easily save an hour or more. It is another example of how to obey God’s command to redeem the time.
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"According to a 2011 study done by the editors of the Oxford English dictionary, “time” is the most commonly used noun in the English language. Not only did the word “time” itself make the top 100, but other time related words made the top 20 as well. ""Year"" in third place, ""day"" in fifth and ""week"" at No. 17.
The oxford editors confirmed what most of us already know. Time is integral to everything we do. Everything depends on time and without time we can accomplish nothing. Time is the one indispensable resource needed for any accomplishment.
We all say we want more time while readily admitting we waste what we already have. In reality, time is life. When we waste our time, we waste our life. However, God is even more concerned about our time then we are. He warns us repeatedly in the scriptures that time in this world is very brief. Focusing on that reality is the best starting point for redeeming the time.
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