"Have you ever met someone who just seemed to enjoy having a bad attitude? You can’t say or do anything to cheer them up because deep down they really don’t want to be cheered up. They would never admit it, but they’d rather enjoy the attention they receive from showing an attitude than to deal with their problem and go on with life.
The attitude with which you approach any given day is probably the greatest predictor of how productively you will use your time that day. Someone put it this way, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” It’s true. Both pessimists and optimists generally get what they expect. That’s why the Bible warns us to guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
How will Satan try to stir up negative attitudes in you today? Be prepared for those inevitable assaults or they’ll keep you from redeeming the time.
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"What do you do in your free time? That’s one of those questions we ask to make polite conversation. But there is really no such thing as “free time.” All time has value. A better way to think of “free time” is to think of it as leisure time, or time away from our normal routine. But God still has something He wants us to do, even if it is playing games with our children, or going on a walk with our spouse.
God has a plan and a purpose for every moment He allows you to live. There is never a time when it is simply up to us to determine how we spend time apart from the will of God. Redeeming the time means continually listening to the voice of God and staying close to Him in order to detect His will for each moment of our day.
Remember all time is valuable time. Destroying the myth of free time gives the mindset to redeem the time.
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"Every assignment God’s sends our way needs a freeze point. Let me explain. When the highway department wants to build a bridge they hire a contractor who then sends surveyors and engineers to the site. They take measurements and put the data into computers or produce models and drawings and will for quite some time continue to refine their design in order to make the perfect bridge for that location.
But one day the management of the firm walks into the engineer’s office and announces, today is the freeze point. Whatever you have today is what we’re going to build. At that point they begin to dig the holes and actually build the bridge.
Every assignment has to have a freeze point. We often look at a thing, think about a thing, even pray about doing it, but never take the action necessary to get started and do the thing God is calling us to do. Establishing a freeze point is a great way to redeem the time.
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"If you are a frequent flyer, you probably try to make the best use of your time when traveling. If you’re like me you’re continually looking for strategies to get more done on those days you have to fly.
Many people believe the best way to schedule a flying day is to try to arrive as close as possible to departure time so you don’t waste time sitting in the airport. That used to be my strategy, until I began to realize that as a frequent flyer, I had a special arrangement with the airline that if it was time to go and I wasn’t there, they could just go ahead and leave without me.
After they kept their part of the agreement a time or two, I began to realize that a much better strategy is to arrive at the airport extra early and plan to work or share my faith with someone in the gate area. Arriving early is also a lot less stressful way to redeem the time.
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