"I Want Your Time"

The father came home from work late, was tired, irritated and frazzled. His 5 year old son was waiting at the door. "Daddy, may I ask you a question?" The dad was shuffling his things away, "Ok, what is it?" "Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?" It caught the father off guard and he quipped, "That's none of your business. Why would you ask me such a thing?" The little boy asked again, pleading with his father. The father said in a huff, "I make about $20 an hour if that will answer your question!" The little boy looked at his dad and said, "Daddy, may I borrow $9 please?"

For some reason this infuriated the father and he bluntly said no and told his son to march right to his room and go to bed. The words came out, "I work long, hard hours and I don't have time to deal with your silliness!"

The little boy went to his room and shut his door. As the father sat down, it began to bother him how his son had asked the question only wanting to get money from him. After settling down for a while, the father realized rarely did his son ask for money and maybe he had a good reason for the $9. The father went to his son's room asking, "Are you asleep?" The 5 year old said, "No, daddy, I'm awake."

"I'm sorry for being so harsh to you earlier. It's been a long day and I shouldn't have been so unkind. Here's the $9 you need." The little boy sat straight up, beaming, "Thank you!"

The little boy reached under his pillow pulling out some crumpled bills. He began counting the money and looked up at his father saying, "Here daddy, I have $20 now...can I buy an hour of your time?"

I am generally not into a lot of stories but I thought this incident made a great illustration of how much our heavenly Father wants our time! God demonstrated His own love toward us (Rom. 6:8). Paul proclaimed that God demonstrated such great love by giving us the gift of Himself (Gal. 2:20). In all His giving, the majority walk along their lives with little thought or concern. We get caught up in the world, our business of events and pleasures while God and His love gets pushed to the side. We falter, struggle and fail while the whole time we could have a wonderful, endearing relationship of power, strength and courage. A relationship that would lessen our stresses, renew our minds and give us an inward strength to move forward.

Jesus died that we might live. That is for NOW, not the future. What are you doing in your relationship to the Lord? How much devotion are you giving Him? Our heavenly Father longs for us but He will not take second place to anyone or anything else. He gave His all and expects us to give our all back. That will lead us upward into God and the relationship will be beyond human words. "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil." (Eph. 5:15-16)