My oldest son has spent almost no time with me in the last thirty years. I have come to the conclusion that our relationship for him is not worth spending the time to cultivate. Why the alienation? People do what they want to do! Why would anyone fail to spend time with the ones who love them most? Because their priorities are different. The wall between my son and me is marijuana. He does what he wants to do, and that is spend time with "Mary Jane" who has convinced him that pleasure is more important than love.
One of my former "best" friends, when I ask him to do some activity together, shrugs and says, "I don't have the time." That is essentially declaring that our friendship is not worth him spending that valuable asset. He as well declare, I would rather do about anything else rather than waste my time with you! Does that type of person truly not have time? Yes, they have the time, but would rather do what they want to do. People always do what they want to do!
My daughter questioned that. She retorted: "I don't want to work but I do!" To that I replied, "You want to work or you would not work. Some people don't work." She looked confused. I finished, "You could not work but you value things money can buy. Work is what you want in order to have things."
In my own children's informative years, I worked often seven/twelves. I claimed that I didn't want to do that, but for the love of money I still did it! What was another option? I could have found another job where I wasn't required to work so much. I placed money over time with my children. I wasted and lost all that time which I could have taken loving them! If I could rewind, I would certainly spend more time with my family. First off, I would cease spending luxury time on what I want to do, and spend more quality time with my children. My daughter asked me one time at about the age of twenty-three, "Dad, what did you do at General Motors?" My own daughter didn't even know my profession. That was bad on my part; it showed how little time we took conversing.
Christians are to tithe their money to God. God doesn't need our money. He is the Author of prosperity! Why does God want it then? As a sacrifice to him. God considers ten percent of our income a small sacrifice to demonstrate love for Him. Indirectly, tithing is His way of getting ten percent of our time, knowing that our priority is not spending time communing with Him. I feel badly for not spending time with my daughter. Perhaps she feels the same way. Well, God feels badly when his children don't spend time with Him. He knows that we can make the time, but is quite aware that we are doing what we want to do! We owe God time-tithing.
Tithing time can be spent wisely. God is not selfish! We are expected to spend our time loving Him and one another. Loving others is how Christians vicariously love God. If Christians truly want to please God, we are to love our enemies, and even them as much as ourselves! Love is extremely hard work but God respects the time and effort it takes to love.
In this age, Christians expect to be entertained at church. It is God's house; not ours. Our job as Christians is to "dress and keep" God. We are to magnify and love Him! That takes precious time. But many go to church for personal gain and spend God's hour lifting ourselves up doing what we want to do! The what's in it for me attitude is how Christians look at the church. That one hour is God's time but we can't even give Him an hour! How much time does God expect? Not just an hour but all our time! We belong to Him if we're Christians, and all our time is His!
God knows that He will not get all our time. He is no fool! Therefore, I suggest time-tithing is the minimum acceptable. It is what we owe God. Anything beyond 10% of our time is sacrificial. He knows that we all can make time for ten percent. Since God expects what people owe Him (ten percent of our profits), the sacrfice is any giving beyond that we owe Him. We are to be generous and give God our monetary tithe and sacrificial giving in addition to that. The same goes for our time!
We don't know if the poor widow cast in all her money but we do know that she sacrificed much! Jesus implied that. Her love for God was more than her love of money! I would expect that this woman lived for God. I suggest that her time belonged to Jesus as well as her farthing! She was there wasn't she? She could have been elsewhere but she chose to love God. She was doing what she wanted to do but it was in line with what God wanted her to do. That is what love of God is! I would bet that since Jesus lifted her up as an example, that this poor woman was loving to all those around her. She surely spent her time befriending others.
Mark 12:41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury.
In modern times, shallow people have a way of measuring friendship. It is how many "likes" they get on Facebook. It is validation for how many people "love" them but where is the validation that they love others. I have had even some church friends "unfriend" me on Facebook. That is devastating; they can't even fake-love me! Some may have 500 friends on Facebook and act as if I'm their friend. I'm not even in the top 500 of their fake friends! So much for loving others; so much for loving God!
I quit going to my last church because I didn't feel loved. I had acquaintances but not true friends. That is not love. I even had one man who hated me and made it obvious. He "murdered" me even in God's house! When my friends came, he seemed to despise them as well because they commented on his grumpiness. He was doing what he wanted to do with his time; he was alienating those with whom he expects to spend eternity. That is foolish-time poorly spent.
How many hours in the day? Twenty-four. "Time-tithing" then is two-hours and twenty-four minutes. If you study the word for thirty minutes in the morning, you will reflect on it all day long even as you work. What's more, you will practice it all day long; that is your living sacrifice: you give yourself entirely to God. How you sacrifice yourself is making time for loving others. My chosen sacrifice is not money of which I have ample, but my time of which I have little. Sure, I'm retired but my remaining time is limited. Ironically, the less time I have in life, the more I want to spend it for God.
Loving others is hard work and I'm hard to love. If I expect others to love me, time must be spent to love them! People take time for granted. My brother had terminal cancer, and I knew he had but a short time remaining. I spent an hour with him in his final days. He died soon after. I could have spent days with him but I did what I wanted to do. I have remorse for that now because I miss my big brother. Furthermore, I could have spent more time with my parents and other brother before they died. Time cannot be rewound, it must be spent wisely the first time. Time spent on loving others is time well-spent. I cherish my time with my wife. She is worth my time.
However, time and love must be shared! Loving our spouses is to be a given. That is the minimum but we are to love others as well.
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