Wisdom. . . Teach us To Number Our Days, Lord
Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalms 90:12 (NIV)
Over the weekend our extended family met at my mom’s home. After lunch she announced that she wanted the ladies upstairs together. In the spare room, my mom had laid out special keepsakes that she had held onto during her almost 90 years of life. Many of the heirlooms were hand stitched crocheted doilies. I am thankful that mom was with us while we were admiring her handiwork because it is unbelievable the vast amount of detailed crocheting and sewing that she, her mother, and her grandmother created. The picture above shows some of their work.
I truly can’t imagine how many hours it would have involved just to create one doily. Who has time or the coordination for such a thing anymore? These days most of us are “all thumbs”{on our phones, to be exact}.
We all have different talents, life situations, brain capacity and more, but time . . . ? This has been doled out to us equally. The hours of a day are the only thing that we have been given that is equal to everyone else in the entire world. Of course, we don’t how many days we have been given on earth but we have all been given this day with the same amount of time within it. Time is our most precious commodity. How will we spend it?
One thing I know. . . Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, the Internet — these things can make my time dissolve into nothingness and at the end of it I may be hard-pressed to remember what I even put into my mind. This is not okay with me. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” Proverbs 4:23.
I wonder what my mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother thought about as they took stitch after stitch on their creations. I imagine — no, I know. . . that they would have turned to prayer. And with each stitch even though they could not yet see the completed picture, they continued to work in faith and continued to pray in faith. Does my mind turn to prayer as I’m searching the Web, Pinterest, Facebook etc.? Sometimes it does but not in the same way or with the same focus as if I was deliberately creating something with my hands or deliberately setting time aside to pray.
What I’m reminding myself of is this: Be deliberate on how I spend my days, my hours, my moments, my time, my life, so that I may gain a heart of wisdom and not a heart filled with information that I cannot even recall with moments that dissolve into nothingness with no forward motion in my development or in helping others.
Lord Jesus, give me wisdom. Help me to number my days aright so that I may gain a heart of wisdom. Teach me to guard my heart and my mind so that I can reach more people to know who you are, Jesus. I want to spread the gospel to those who do not know You. Help me to have discipline. Help me to hear from You as to what to do next. Help me to obey You immediately. I love You, Lord Jesus, with everything I have, I love you. Amen.