Five Key Principles Of Time Management Series

Five Key Principles Of Time Management

Time Management – God’s Way

Think for a moment what the greatest stressors in your life are today. Haven’t your stressors involved some feelings of being overloaded with responsibilities – at home – at work – at school – at church – or maybe a combination of all of these plus more. You are stressed because you are: running late for an appointment then get stopped at a traffic light. Then the car starts acting up – and how are you going to find the money and the time to get it fixed? Is there going to be enough time to come home from work – cook dinner and then still make it to school for the kids program? Oh, and by the way Joe down the street suggested you should get together sometime for coffee – you told him you would call him back but you still haven’t taken the time to call him back yet.

Each of these anxiety-producers has to do with time management. Think of how many day-to-day issues involve the use of time. In fact that is what the day consists of – T – I – M – E. The clock seems to be our enemy – because it keeps on ticking no matter what happens – regardless whether we have time for it or not.

The solution is time management. But here is the catch. Time management will require work if you want to succeed. It will require hard work. It will require home work and it will require heart work. Being successful at time management – requires work.

In today’s sermon, I would like to talk about five key principles of time management. These principles will help you manage your time as you struggle with your overwhelming situations of life. Let me give you five guiding principles of time management. Here is guiding principle number one:

1. Set PRIORITIES

You cannot be effective in time management unless you set priorities.

Probably many of you know the illustration of the physics teacher who gave his students a wide-mouth mason jar. He then gave them five big rocks, a handful of marbles, a container of sand and a glass of water. He said, “You’ve got fifteen seconds to put all of these items in the jar."

The physics teacher then stepped back with stopwatch in hand and yelled, “Go!” The students poured in the sand, threw in the marbles and started stuffing the rocks in. After fifteen seconds he shouted, “Times up.” There still sitting on the table were three large rocks and the glass of water. The students started complaining, “It can’t be done. It’s impossible. All that stuff will not fit. The jar is too small.”

The teacher calmly said, “I can put them all in the jar.” The students responded, “Show us.” So they dumped everything back on the table – separated everything and started over. The teacher then took the jar and placed a couple of the big rocks in the jar. He filled in any gaps around the big rocks with the marbles and continued to fill the jar until it was up to the brim with all the big rocks and all the marbles. The teacher then took the sand and slowly poured it into the jar and watched as it cascaded around the rocks and the marbles – filling all the holes and spaces. He then took the glass of water and poured it into the jar. Everything fit perfectly. He then said, “It all fits – but it depends on the order that you put them in the jar – that is a matter of setting priorities. When you set priorities you can make it happen.” Jesus said it this way:

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

Jesus was saying that we need to set priorities in life. Time management number one is set priorities.

Here is principle number two:

2. Build RELATIONSHIPS

We find that Jesus set this principle when He was asked:

“Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” Matthew 22:36-40 (HCSB)

In this short statement – Jesus tells us that there are two relationships that are vital.

A. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father – and

B. Our relationship with other people.

Why would He tell us that relationships are the most important things? Because all the “stuff” – material possessions – will disappear – but relationships will last. The money – the job – the possessions – the toys – all that “stuff” – will all be gone in the end. But your relationship with God will last forever. In fact – where you will spend eternity is based on one thing – your relationship with God. Therefore, your relationship to God is of vital importance. If you do nothing else in this life – take the time to build your relationship with God.