You notice it one evening. Wasn’t it just a little while ago that it got dark later? Is that a leaf on a tree starting to turn the slightest bit orange? Your son or daughter is telling you that she needs to go to Wal-Mart to get school supplies. They are moaning because they have already started back from summer break. School again! Summer is over!

It can’t be over. It just seems like a day or two ago that you were picking your child up on the last day of school. You were planning where you and the family would go on vacation. Your family was mapping out all the fun things you were going to do. The days were hot and long. There were evening barbeques. Lemonade flowed like the Missouri River. There were picnics galore! The Fourth of July fireworks were beautiful. It was the good life.

Where did the Summer go? It can’t be time to begin thinking about the Fall. It can’t be time to start thinking about frost, early evenings, and apple cider. Saturdays will bring college football and Sundays the professionals. The World Series will be on in just a couple of weeks. Soon the air will turn cold and we’ll begin to think about winter.

There’s one thing for sure. Time passes quicker than we expect. Suddenly we look around and it is gone. “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Time passes through our hands like sand. We have a handful one minute and the next minute it has run through our fingers. The key to life is not to try to squeeze more into it but to make the most of the time we do have. And the only way to make the most of our lives is to be at peace with God. Jesus tells us to come to Him to make the most of our short stay on the earth (Matthew 11:28-29).

How are you using your time? - by Grady Scott