Watch My Time

Time didn't stop, but my watch battery did. I held the watch and thought how much I'd done in the six hours since it had stopped running.

Dr. Leslie Weatherhead calculated our lifetime based on the hours in a single day.

So far, this is my day:

At 10:25 in the morning I was age 15. I liked skiing fast and was learning how to drive a car more slowly.

It was almost lunch time, 11:34 when I celebrated 20 years—thankfully I was half-way through college by then.

By the time I was 25, married and with an active toddler, it was 12:42 PM.

Even though I'd been told to dread turning 30, it was still only 1:51 in the afternoon when I did.

Somehow age 35 didn't faze me, and we moved our family 250 miles to begin an exciting new chapter in our lives. It was now 3:00 PM.

I didn't get any black balloons when I turned 40, but it was now 4:08 on the clock. The next five years rushed by with my daughter graduating college and my son entering high school. It was already 5:15.

Turning 50 wasn't as bad as I expected but I pensively looked at my watch and it was 6:25 in the evening.

Thinking that time would go slower once the kids were on their own...it didn't. It was 7:24 by the time I was 55.

I'm 60 and feel the evening's tiredness...it's now 8:42 PM. Lord willing, if I reach 65, it will be 9:51. And by age 70, it will be 11PM.

King David advised, "Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should."

The Apostle Paul was a bit more direct: "So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise."

In the words of Dr. Seuss, "How did it get late, so soon."

I replaced the watch battery with care, now may I do the same with my time.