By Judi Braddy
My times are in your hands…Psalms 31:15
…Psalms 31:15
Somewhere towards the beginning of April the country makes a conscious and collective leap into spring. We call it Daylight Savings Time. Here’s the concept. Move your clock ahead one hour and…voila! Everyone “springs forward” and gets an extra hour of evening light.
But wait just a hoppin’ minute.
We also lose an hour’s sleep. I don’t know about you, but for me that constitutes jet lag.
Okay. I know it’s only an hour’s difference. Problem is it always starts in the morning. Whose idea was that? Even if the birds are chirping and the sun is shining, losing an hour’s sleep just throws my time clock into a tizzy.
“So go to bed early,” you say. Any finely calibrated person knows that doesn’t work. I can’t go to sleep at ten o’clock when my body thinks it’s only nine. Besides, isn’t the idea to extend your day? Then, hello! Going to bed early sort of defeats the whole purpose.
Here’s another clock-wise concern. To blindly and obligingly spring in any direction might pose a serious safety issue. Aren’t we taught to look before we leap? Not jump to conclusions? Maybe we need to give this vernal vault more consideration.
Truth is I am one of those time-challenged people who can’t afford to lose an hour. When you’re always running behind—not to mention sleep deprived—losing time could have serious repercussions.
Eventually, of course, we all adjust. It’s still twenty-four hours whether tacked on at the beginning or end. “Hour by hour,” the Psalmist writes, “I place my days in your hands…
As long as we’re talking time, here, let me take the opportunity to tackle a subject with which—judging from the number of articles in every major women’s magazine on eliminating stress, organizing your time…space…thoughts… yada, yada, yada—most women struggle. That is not having enough time. No wonder to think of losing one more hour in our already maxed-out day is, well, unthinkable.
Contrary to popular teaching the key is not just better time management or optimum organization. Certainly those things can be useful tools in eliminating the clutter from our schedules and spaces. The best motivation for getting our lives in order, however, is to truly understand how much God loves us, what a wonderful plan he has for our lives, and, if given a chance, how he will help us eliminate whatever interferes with it.
Interesting how times of change, tiny or tumultuous, can reflectively reinforce the importance of committing our days to God, asking Him to help us make the most of them.
So take heart, time travelers. Autumn will compensate our snooze time. In the meantime, waking or sleeping, God’s presence fills our days. That’s really all we need to ‘fall back’ on.
Judi Braddy s a writer, motivational speaker, licensed minister, pastor’s wife, mom and grandma. A regular columnist for Woman’s Touch Magazine and the author of three books: Prodigal in the Parsonage; It All Comes Out in the Wash; and Simple Seasons (from which this article was adapted), Judi has lived through scads of seasons and turned over a number of new leaves. She her husband, Jim, live in Elk Grove, California. Visit her witty website at www.judibraddy.com.