Here’s a riddle:

This thing all things devours:  Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down.  (One of Gollum’s riddles for Bilbo from “The Hobbit”.)

The answer is (oh come on now – try to guess the answer!  I will tell you further down.)

Let me tell you about yesterday’s day at work.  At the surgical center, we start our day early.  For all of you who have had any kind of surgical procedure, you know that you usually are not allowed to eat or drink after midnight – so we start early so that you don’t have to suffer from thirst or hunger too long!  There were two doctors yesterday with only eight cases for the first doc, and just two for the second.  We all thought for sure we’d be done and out fairly early.  Well, there was a new piece of equipment in the operating room that a rep was introducing to the surgeons and other complications that made each case last so much  l o n g e r  that usual.  The day dragged!  We kept looking at the clock and it seemed stuck.  Contrast that to the work schedule today.  The doctor this morning had eleven cases and worked in her usual very fast pace and –whoosh- we worked fast and were done before we knew it!

The answer to the riddle above is “time”.  Time.  It can be friend or foe.  It can drag or it can disappear before you know it.  You can waste time.  You can spend time.  You can wish for more time and you can hope for time to pass quickly.  I hate it when I run out of time, and there are situations when I wish time would stand still.  Oh if I could save time in a bottle!

Will Rogers once said:  “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today,”

Remember when you were a kid and summers seemed to never end and Christmas took forever to arrive?  As we age, good ‘ole time just seems to pass faster and faster and this summer will be over before we know it.  Darn.

Just like money, we are always complaining that we don’t have enough time.  But we also complain sometimes when we have too much time.  (Although I’ve never heard anyone complain that they have too much money!)  I think the thing to remember is that every day, time can be our friend.  We are given the same amount as everyone else to spend each day.  It is up to us how we spend it.  I like this bit of wit that I found:

Take time to work – it is the price of success.
Take time to think – it is the source of power.
Take time to play – it is the secret of youth.
Take time to read – it is the foundation of knowledge.
Take time to laugh – it is the music of the soul.
Take time to be courteous – it is the work of a gentleman.
Take time to pray – it is the Christian’s vital breath.

Every morning we wake up we are all given the gift of a days’ worth of time.

Spend it wisely 🙂

Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

just Laurel