On Time

This fall I've enjoyed reading Charlotte Mason's Fourth Volume, Ourselves, in preparation for reading it with Finn within the next year.  It's such a great instruction manual on living a good life! I wish I'd read it in the 1990s.   

I've particularly enjoyed the chapter entitled "Integrity: Justice in Action."  I'll share some quotes from this occasionally over the next few months, but I'll start with some wisdom on time. 

{a gorgeous cloud over my aunt and uncle's house}

"It is a bad thing to think that time is our own to do what we like with.  We are all employed; we all have duties, and a certain share of our time must be given to those duties.  It is astonishing how much time there is in a day, and how many things we can get in if we have a mind.  it is also astonishing how a day, a week, or a year may slip through our fingers, and nothing done. We say we have done no harm, that we have not meant to do wrong.  We have simply let ourselves drift......

"[People] dawdle through the working day, hoping that some one will make them do the thing they ought.  Now, this is a delusion.....[t]his power of making oneself work is a fine thing.  Every effort makes the next easier, and, once we mount upon that easy nag, Habit, why, it is a real satisfaction to do the day's work in the day, and be free to enjoy the day's leisure."

Isn't this true?  And I love the "easy nag" of Habit. Truly, I believe our habits either make or break us. 

"Some people dearly like to be going on with a little job of their own in the time which should have a fixed employment.....Integrity forbids this....[e]very piece of work has its due time.  The time which is due to an occupation belongs to that, and must not be used for any other purpose."

I agree with this, for the most part.  I do think we have to take time seriously; otherwise, days and weeks are wasted.  At the same time (sorry; can't resist), we also need to be wise in deciding how our time should be spent.  If you've got a tendency to over-productivity and over-work, you can fall into the habit of simply working all the time.  But sometimes life demands we must use time for a purpose other than the one we'd originally assigned to it.

Illness and medical emergencies are obviously one example of this. But other examples are:

talking to a child late into the night (when really, you should be sleeping so you can get up and exercise in the morning)

extending a breakfast theological discussion a bit longer, because people have questions and need to talk (when you should use that time to begin "formal schoolwork" or chores)

paying attention to a child or spouse's emotional state and spending time with them (even if the time had been allotted for some other purpose)

I suspect Charlotte Mason would agree with me.  After all, the work of the family is tending to each other's needs; that's my primary "occupation" right now and that's where the bulk of my duties are focused. So although some days we can stick strictly to a routine, there are days when the "do the next right thing" approach is the most valuable use of our time. 

{farm life! lots of lessons in doing the next right thing on a farm....}

There have been seasons in my own life when I have outwardly accomplished very little, but the spiritual and emotional work was enormous.  When my husband was super sick after radiation treatments, I was as "unproductive" as I've probably ever been, but I was tending to my husband and children's physical and emotional needs.  We all grew during that hard time.  Not much felt like it was "done," but what was done, was what was meant to be done.  So, if you're in one of those times, don't forget 2 Corinthians 4:18 (part of the passage my children and I are memorizing right now), which reminds us to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, because what is unseen is eternal. You can't really check "tend to my family's emotional and spiritual needs" off the list every day; how in the world can we quantify that?  But it's of the utmost importance.  

 I appreciate this reminder to use our time wisely, to use the time allotted to a specific task for that task, while also keeping at the forefront of our minds the reality that our highest duties often require setting aside that task and allowing a more eternal, important task to take its place. 

Onward and upward, with small faithful steps, every single day.......