Teach Me to Number My Days

Last Sunday (1/4), my Pastor allowed me to present the Children’s Sermon. As always, I tried to connect the message of that morning’s sermon to the Children’s Sermon. The sermon’s central message was the stewardship of time and the central passage was Psalm 90:12, which reads:

So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. (NASB)

The subject of stewardship is often difficult for children to grasp—especially since many of them do not have much of anything to manage besides toys. However, my mind quickly jumped to how I could demonstrate to them the concept of managing their time. I (with the help of my parents) gathered pictures depicting typical daily activities (praying, eating breakfast, playing, doing school/home work, etc.) and was going to ask the children to help me put them in order of a normal day. This activity worked as I expected and the children seemed to understand that “we can’t wait until lunch to eat breakfast because we will get really hungry”—there should be some order to the day.

As I studied the Scripture, though, I think I got a giant lesson in God’s Will. While at times it seems like I am just waiting for God to open opportunities for me to be in ministry, God is using this time to prepare me for that ministry. It seems so simple a child could understand, but this was just the message that I needed to hear and in just the way I needed to hear it. The message was: Jonathan, use your time while you are not in vocational ministry to learn and gather knowledge so that when God begins to use you in vocational ministry you may present Him a heart of wisdom by knowing, understanding, and doing His will.

Since this time, I have been asking God what I should do that I could number or order my days to honor Him. What should I be doing during this time while I am working in a secular job that will present Him a heart of wisdom when I become the pastor of a local church? I believe He is showing me how what I am doing now will benefit His kingdom and what I could be doing to grow into the pastor He wants me to become. I believe this lesson and this prayer is great for every believer: “Lord, teach me to order my time so that I may present You a heart of wisdom.”