How to Wisely Use Time as a Dad

It was a special day! What made it so special, you ask? That is easy; it was July 4th, and it was our first child’s birthday!

Every year after that, everyone celebrated his birthday with fireworks and parades, at least that was how his mother and I felt about the whole thing. As I held him in my arms that birthday, visions of things to come flashed through my mind. Camping trips, ball games, holidays, and all kinds of special events together flashed through my mind.

Then the reality of time hit home. He was not ready yet for all those future events. We would have to wait until he grew into readiness for such things! But that was okay because we had lots of time ahead of us to enjoy all those precious times together. Then, it seemed like it was just yesterday that he was born, and now we were driving him to the airport to get on an airplane as he left for college 2000 miles away from us – where did the time go?

I remember some of my early dreams did happen, but it seemed not near enough of them. Why was that so? When he was born, time seemed to crawl by, and so much of it was ahead. What happened; where did all that time go?

Time can be our friend if we use it wisely or a cruel taskmaster if we do not. In the early days of our years of raising our children, a friend of mine showed me his yardstick of time. He had marked it up and divided it into sections. Each section represented a portion of his life. He quoted for me Psalm 90:12:

“So teach us to number of our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Then he told me how the exercise helped him use his time wisely. The idea clicked in my mind, and I found an old yard stick and figured if each half inch represented one year, then the 36” yardstick represented 72 years of life. I marked on it when I was saved, when I surrendered to God’s will for my life, when I was married, the birth of each of our four children, when I was ordained, and when I started Ironwood.

As I did so, it dawned on me that about half of the time my children were going to be in the home was already gone! Seeing time visualized like that got my attention, and I determined from then on to use the rest of the time I had with each child more wisely.

I developed a timeline that helped me see the different stages of life as a child grows up and what each stage of development needed. It helped me identify the key areas I was responsible to teach my children. A study of Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 78:1–8, and Ephesians 5 and 6 helped me identify those responsibilities.

I will start with the biblical principle that wise people use time differently than unwise (foolish) people do, and that time usage is one way we can tell the difference between the wise and the unwise.

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15–17)

Let’s consider five biblical reminders about the wise use of time.

1. Consider our potential remaining number of days (Psalm 90:12).

Moses wrote Psalm 90, and the basic theme of the psalm is about using time well. In the end (v.17), we should be able to ask God to establish, bless, and prosper the use of our time, which results in the work of our lives.

2. Use our limited opportunities wisely (Ephesians 5:15–17).

The idea of redeeming our time (v.16) means to “buy up” our time and to use each opportunity in our lives wisely because the days in which we live are both limited and evil. A direct decision to use time wisely and righteously helps in making good choices at work, at church, or at home to help us recover our time from waste and to use it for good and proper purposes.

3. Consider time usage as a process, not an event (Genesis 4:3).

A visual timeline of some sort will help us see clearly the value of the limited time we have for doing family right. In the very first family, the Bible points out children are raised in the context of the process or passing of time. We cannot reclaim or do over opportunities lost, squandered, or misused. However, all the days ahead are still a blank page to fill in. What will be written on them, and what impact will they have on generations to come?

4. Think of time usage in terms of its being sequential and incremental.

When God’s Word commands Fathers to “bring up their children in the training and admonition of the Lord,” the idea of bringing up children has to do with the whole concept of sequentially and incrementally bringing them up (training and teaching) to their maturity in a manner pleasing to the Lord.

Sequential refers to teaching and training in a logical order, one after the other. Incremental on the other hand means taking small, measured steps, one after the other. It is like climbing a ladder one step at a time without trying to skip three rungs. Parents need to remember bringing up their children is done in the process of time.

Time is their friend if they use it to teach and train their children sequentially and incrementally. Time is their enemy if they miss opportunity after opportunity to both teach and train their children; Before they realize it, their children are teenagers, and they try to catch up all at once.

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

5. Time cannot be saved, only used.

NO one has more time than others. Everyone has exactly 24 hours each day. This fact is inherent in God’s creation. Everyone in this world— north, south, east or west; all have the same 24 hours each day they live. No one has more or less hours each day.

The only day anyone will have less hours than others is the day they die before that day is done. This is a sobering reality, but also a glorious reality, for in the day that time ends for believers, eternity begins. C. T. Studd’s famous poem says, “Only one life ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Time can be the parents’ friend when they “bring up” their children in the training and admonition “of the Lord,” and they do so wisely and consistently. Time, on the other hand, will be their foe if they squander it and use it foolishly.