Time Well Spent: Stewarding Your Time for God and People
“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”—Proverbs 16:3 (ESV)
[This blog series is a reflection on some of the themes I have written on this blog.]
Do the hours on your calendar line up with what you value most?
For me, it is all too easy to clutter my days with low-priority tasks or mindless scrolling. At the end of the day, I can feel like I’ve been busy all day and yet made little progress on the things that matter most. If the way we use our time reflects the priorities of our hearts, then our calendars reveal more than our schedules—they reveal what we value.
The way we use our time is one of the most practical ways we connect the dots between what we believe and how we live. That is why I write often about planning on this blog. Planning is one way we begin translating our desire to serve God and others into the realities of everyday life.
When I plan well, my calendar helps me make the best use of my time (Ephesians 5:15–16). As I plan each week, I ask God to help me number my days and create rhythms that balance work and rest.
Thoughtful planning allows me to steward my energy so I can serve my family, church, and the work God has entrusted to me. In that sense, my calendar becomes more than a scheduling tool—it becomes a ministry tool.
Stewarding Your Time for God and People
Of course, this is not rigid. Different seasons require adjustments—when children are young, when work demands increase, or when new ministry opportunities arise.
Planning is not something I do through my own logic. Incorporating it into my time with God helps me to keep tying His big picture into my daily plans. I need His help evaluating my commitments in light of the needs of my home and family. He gives me the wisdom and discernment to both release things that no longer serve or add things that do.
Here are some practices I have incorporated in my own life to steward my hours so my calendar reflects my calling. I hope they will help you as you consider how you might do likewise with yours.
Start with God: Align Your Priorities
If planning is about making sure you have the time and energy to be available for God and people, then we need to start with a sense of His calling.
In my post The Best Investment You Can Make, we clarify what matters most—not our accomplishments, but investing in what has eternal value, particularly people.
Unless we ground our planning in heart-level priorities, we will always find ourselves at the mercy of the urgent or whatever catches our interest at the moment. (I know what that’s like!) Taking time to name what is non-negotiable and putting these in first may not guarantee our lives will be changed, but it’s a bit like putting a stake in the ground and then asking God to help us live towards that end.
What are your “non-negotiables” that reflect spiritual and relational fruit?
Audit Your Calendar: Where Do Your Hours Go?
The post Working Out Your Salvation: 8 Ways to Plan Your Days describes one of the most helpful exercises I have done in my life: time auditing. By tracking a week of activities, I have a more tangible picture of what I actually do with my time. The more honest I am in this exercise, the more clearly I can see what I am actually choosing with my time.
I learned this from the book What’s Best Next which really helped me to connect my desire to live a gospel-centered life to my everyday life. What I really needed was discernment in my daily choices, not just the big picture, helping me to ferret out the low-priority from those that were of higher value during my day.
Try a time audit of your own. Be as honest as you can. Then look at it, not to shame or blame yourself, but to learn from it. What are you actually choosing? Where has your busyness replaced intentionality?
Create Space for Presence and Service
Some people may feel uncomfortable with the idea of planning, an issue I address in post Is it Good to Plan? Over the years, I have learned that planning is something within my realm of responsibility. The results or accomplishment of that plan, however, is not. Distinguishing the two is important.
After doing my first audit, I realized how much time I frittered away. I discovered that I did have time for what mattered—I simply needed to use it differently.
In my post, Three Keys to Planning, I share how I began to take steps from where I’m at to where I wanted to be. Instead of revamping everything, it’s important to take baby steps to move forward, not try to do everything all at once.
Little by little, I learned how to replace some of the less helpful activities with new little habits that would create windows for intentional connection with my husband, children, and friends. Later, I began looking for ways to tie these new habits with some of those “extras” that I enjoyed—not cutting them out completely, but pairing them with things that I wanted to do, like inviting people to share lunch with us after church instead of eating alone.
As you evaluate your time audit, where is one place you can adjust or replace with something that will help you be more present or serve others with joy?
Build Rhythms of Rest and Abiding
One topic that often raises questions for me is the idea of “self-care.” I struggle with the feeling of entitlement that comes with the cultural idea. Yet at the same time, I know that I am not a machine either and cannot go without stopping, even when empowered by the Holy Spirit. My body—especially as it ages—does have limits I must honor.
That is why I wrote my post From Self-Care to Stewardship, more as a way to put into words why I do need to rest. Not to just rest my body, but my soul as well, through daily personal time with God and weekly rhythms that protect Sabbath rest and family time. Out of this rest, my heart is fueled so that I can be faithfully present for others.
This topic of rest is so important that I spent a whole series writing about how work and rest function in rhythm. We need to rest from our work, but as we rest in Christ, we actually can re-enter our work with more focus and joy.
What are some ways you can intentionally rest, not just for self-indulgence, but in order to restore your heart to serve Him and others more fully?
Adjust Your Plans for Each Season of Life
The thing about life is that it is always changing: work schedules shift, children grow up, ministry roles expand and contract. That is part of being human.
In my post, Make the Most of Every Season, I suggest consider the particular limits a certain season brings, but instead of looking at them as obstacles to overcome, consider the things that are possible because of them.
I have done my share of fighting against my current seasons because they don’t fit my idealized one. Not only do I wear myself out in frustration, I miss out on the joys of young children because I’m trying to make them grow up faster, or I fail to learn the sanctifying lessons God is trying to teach me—and the wisdom that comes with them.
As we learn to make the most of every season, we can bring that attitude into our actual planning process. I do this every year. Sometimes there are small changes. But sometimes, like it will for me this coming year, there will be big ones. As we anticipate the graduation of our youngest from high school (and therefore an end to over two decades of homeschooling!), I know things will be different.
Where are you at today and what blessings are hidden among the challenges? How might these open up new possibilities to live intentionally in this season?
Use Planning to Make Yourself Available
By God’s grace, not every season of our lives are busy. He gives us quieter seasons, not just for our relief, but also for our preparation. During these times planning becomes a tool for availability—not busyness. I write about this in my post Mend the Roof Before It Rains: How Good Times Can Prepare Us for Hard Times.
Like I shared earlier, I know transitions are ahead for me. I know I will be tempted to fill my newfound “free time” with all kinds of other things if I’m not careful.
Abiding in Christ helps me to sharpen my discernment. I need Him to help me see where He has been taking me instead of jumping at every new opportunity that comes my way. Praying over my plans with the Lord help me consider where I’m at physically, what He has been doing in my own life, and then how I might use those things to be available for others.
If you’re also in a season of peace or transition, take time to pull back with the Lord and ask: Where should I engage or pull back so that I am available for what the Lord wants me to do in this season of life?
All of these point to the same truth — planning is not about doing more but about being ready for what matters most.
What’s Best Next?
I have often debated about sharing some of these things, lest they be interpreted as productivity practices. They are not.
As people who desire to connect the dots, we must bring our faith all the way down to the level of our days and our time. The planning is important, not in order to secure what we want, but to make space in our lives for the things that we say we want: loving God, serving others, and living as a witness for Him.
So I encourage you: take some time to audit your calendar. Identify the areas you might intentionally reclaim for relational ministry. Commit them to the Lord, that you might have more space to pour into others in service this week.
