If you have watched your child write his first research paper or study for an important exam, you have probably noticed some time management issues. There are so many more interesting and fun things to do than to spend several hours studying or writing weeks before something is due. You may have resorted to constant nagging or cringed as your teen flipped into panic mode at the last minute.
Time management is a secular issue which can also have spiritual consequences. If your teen doesn’t learn how to manage her time well, most likely God is going to be what is eliminated. If you don’t believe me, notice the attendance differential between Sunday morning and week night teen Bible classes. Or ask your frantic teen when was the last time he took time to pray or read his Bible. Even when schools require students to serve others, they are often rushing around at the last minute trying to accumulate their necessary hours.
Recently I read about a very disturbing study. A group of people were asked what they would do if they witnessed someone making a racist joke, taunting someone or displaying overt racism in some way. Almost to a person, everyone said they would speak up for what was right.
It happens to us all. We think we are doing something routine like grocery shopping. On a good day I can get in and out of the grocery store in a few minutes. It never fails though. If my day is packed with so much I have little wiggle room, I will run into everyone I haven’t seen for years in the store. And they want to talk. A lot. About everything that has happened in the five years since I last saw them.
Everyone has a story. Most stories are richer and more fascinating than we can ever imagine. I will never forget talking to a 90 something year old lady at church one day and discovering she had been in the Palace of the Shah of Iran and had tea with him and his family. This sweet little old lady in Georgia had taken tea with a historical figure in another country? If I remember correctly, she even gave him some godly advice while she was there!
Often, it’s the simplest things which help people the most. Years of working with people in countries with unclean tap water, homeless people in the U.S. and even foster children as they move from home to home, have taught me personal care items are an urgent need in many places.