Time Management

Time Management

The Ideal Woman

Read: Proverbs 31:10-27

Maeve did a double take at the clock as she hung up the phone. Where does the time go? She had to call her best friend when she learned that Brian, not Stephen, was the father of Kirsten’s baby. She hadn’t meant to discuss today’s episodes of those other soaps too. Maeve looked around at the unfolded laundry and dirty dishes. They’d better have pizza delivered tonight so she could catch up on things. Thank goodness I know how to multitask, she thought as she turned on Oprah. Reaching into the laundry basket, Maeve dug out the bottle of Disco Pink, her favorite color for toenails.

The ideal woman described in Proverbs 31 is at the opposite extreme from Maeve. She works from before dawn until late into the night, and her accomplishments are extraordinary. Not only does she meet all her family’s needs and conduct profitable business ventures, but this superhuman woman also serves the needy in her community. Her hands are always busy, either at home or in the business world. It makes me tired just to read about her!

Most of us fall somewhere between Maeve and the woman in Proverbs 31, and most of us are looking for improvement. Time-management seminars promise to help us accomplish more each day. Stores are stocked with day planners, electronic gadgets, and books on the topic. Sometimes the very things designed to save us time, such as computers, also encourage us to waste it.

God holds us accountable for how we spend the limited time we have on earth. The wisest use of our time is to do the important work that God has planned for each of us. If we let him guide our daily activities, we will make a difference in other people’s lives—and we’ll resemble the Proverbs 31 woman more than Maeve.

[Jesus said,] “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.”

John 9:4 (NIV)