She was a short and stout, forty-something, olive skinned woman – always smiling, incessantly talking – who had attached herself to me. We met in an evening community college class on the detective story genre. When the class was completed, a few of us decided to gather each month at a local book store to discuss a previously assigned book. The clinging woman was in the group.

As the weeks passed I began to feel that she was stalking me. She phoned at all hours wanting to talk about an East Indian religion in which she and her adult children were involved. Telling her that I was a born-again, evangelical Christian did not deter her. She monopolized my time at the book club; so I stopped going. I monitored my phone calls, picking-up only when I was sure she wasn’t the caller

I did pray about this situation; but it didn’t stop until I began praying a specific verse that I thought applied to the problem.

Psalm 31:15

My times are in Your hands;

deliver me from my enemies

and from those who pursue me.

NIV

One day while driving to an appointment, for which I was late, my focus moved from the first line to the last line of the verse. My time was in God’s hands. I stopped praying for green lights and safety as I raced to avoid the red ones. Anxiety was replaced by calmness as I thought about that first line of the verse. The result was that I arrived at my destination as a vessel that God could use instead of a sweating pot spilling over with excuses and apologies.

Putting my time in God’s hands came with temptations. The first was, when someone was rushing me, I was prone to act on the thought, ”If you think this is slow, let me show you how slow I can be,” a typical passive/aggressive behavior that is not pleasing to God. The second was, what I consider to be tempting God, habitually not managing well what time He had given me and doing it with the confidence that He would give me peace when I foolishly got myself in a time bind.

I’m learning that time is one of the greatest gifts that God gives and that I’m to treasure it by using it wisely.

*****

I’m grateful for two other thoughts about time that I have gleaned from sisters-in-the-Lord.

Don’t wish away time. I wish … summer was over … basketball was over … I was out of school … my pregnancy was over … etc., etc. All segments of time are for only a season and, from God’s perspective, a reason. Thank you Carrie Mohle

God says in Psalm 90:10 that the length of our days of our life are 70 years. My friend, who is the same age as I, but looks a lot younger, is over 70. She considers that she is now living out her God given bonus years. Thank you Ernesteen Clemmons

WHO DOESN’T LIKE GETTING A BONUS!