All About Families, March 11, 1996


	Volume 1 Number 7 March 11, 1996 Norman Bales, Editor How many times have you said, "There just aren't enough hours in the day" or "As soon as we can get things straightened around, I'm going to spend more time with my family or spend more time doing the work of the church" or whatever it is that you give priority to. That magic moment when you suddenly have time on your hands just never seems to materialize. It's as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This week's feature article deals with some of the cliches we use to justify poor time managment. Somebody has said that we substitute cliches for thinking. Read on. CONTENTS "Getting a Handle on the Use of Time" - Norman Bales WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT "A Dangerous Environment" - John Leo "Attitudes Toward Marriage" - Maggie Gallagher "Example" - William J. Bennett GETTING A HANDLE ON THE USE OF TIME by Norman Bales What is your philosophy of time? You're probably thinking, "My what?" Most folks express their philosophy of time through clichés and such platitudes are often filled with half truths and wrong headed conclusions. You've probably heard the maxim, "time and tide wait for no man." I can't argue with that one, but many of us don't seem to understand the priorities of time use. Job said, "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure" (Job 14:1-2). Try fast forwarding time to the moment of your death. When you're ready to leave the world, a lot of time consuming things aren't going to matter much - the condition of your lawn, the power of your car engine, the soundness of your investment portfolio. What you did with your family and how you responded to God will make a lot of difference. It's true that time and tide wait for no man, but that can be an excuse to pursue the wrong kind of time priorities. Maybe the most destructive cliché is the one that says, "It's the quality of time that counts, not the quantity." Have you ever though about trying to make that one fly in the work place? Suppose you decide you want to work one hour a day and you tell your boss, "In that one hour, I'll give one hundred percent of my energy and creativity, but I'm only going to spend one hour a day at work. After all, it's quality not quantity that counts." He'll probably hand you a little pink slip and direct you to the pay window. How would you feel on payday, if he were to say "We paid you for only one hour a day, but we gave you our top hourly wage. After all it's quality,not quantity that counts." How then, can we give a small percentage of our time to our families and expect them to be satisfied because we've given quality not quantity? We live in a world of ever increasing time pressures. In that kind of world, we have to understand our priorities and devote ourselves to those priorities. No one needs generous portions of our time more than our families. Someone has said, "I shall pass this way but once. Any good I can do, any kindness I can show, let me do it now." WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING A DANGEROUS FAMILY ENVIRONMENT "By breaking the taboos against unwed motherhood and casual divorce, we have created the world's most dangerous environment for children - a new fatherness America filling up with kids who are so emotionally damaged by their parents' behavior that they may have a lot of trouble making comiitments and forming families themselves." - John Leo U. S. News and World Report. Feb. 5, 1996 ATTITUDES TOWARD MARRIAGE Marriage ". . .has been ruthlessly dismantled piece by piece, under the influence of those . . . who believed that the abolition of marriage was necessary to advance human freedom." - Maggie Gallagher in "The Abolition of Marriage" quoted by John Leo. U. S. News and World Report. Feb. 5, 1996 EXAMPLE "There is nothing more influential in a child's life than the moral power of quiet example. For children to take morality seriously they must see adults take morality seriously." - William J. Bennett. "The Book of Virtues. NEXT WEEK'S OUTLINE "Finding Life Long Happiness"