None of us have been given more time in any given day or week or month or year. None of us have more than 24 hours to spare in each day or more than seven days in any given week. Some people have the gift of budgeting their time wisely. Some people are better at prioritizing. Some people know how to compromise their time. Some people haven’t a clue.
Each of us has priorities and circumstances and situations that are unique to our own individual lives. Often we will include others in the time that we have given. Often we do things by choice – sometimes by situation or circumstance. It’s amazing how there are some who can utilize their time to the fullest while others get swallowed up and lost with the short amount of time that they have.
I would personally like to experience a sense of balance equally – perhaps leaning more to a larger chunk devoted to my family and less to the business – which would be null if there weren’t bills to pay.
There’s some who have become doctors, actors/actresses, military personal and what have you. Often careers will take precedence over the family (depending on the individual) whether intentional or not.
And then there are unplanned circumstances such as law suits, failing health, sudden deaths or jury duty that certainly don’t fit into our already full agendas. So we are still making sacrifices – perhaps more often with those unexpected situations.
There have been recent posts on my facebook home page that have been made from the hospital. One has a child whose lungs are not working correctly. One has a son who’s been in and out of hospitals since the day that he was born. He’s had MRI’s and other treatments. Each time they celebrate a birthday with him, they wonder if it will be his last.
We also have health news about a young father who has been in the hospital for a week now. Descriptions of his flushed skin make it sound as though he is close to death’s door.
And then I see pictures posted by those on prestigious vacations. It seems so unfair. They are spending huge amounts of money while so many others struggle. But again, I don’t know what sacrifices they have made to get there – or will make.
Some of us drop what we’re doing to aid our family members, while others put in long hours just to meet expenses or to honor written contracts or just to be away from family.
So what makes us happy? Our families? Our careers? Certainly not watching a love one suffer due to illness or accident. But is there comfort in our presence? Each person deals with pain in a different way. And what may be painful to others might not be so painful to somebody else.
Take death for instance. My family members have dealt with death many times. Most have been expected or non-surprising rather, while some have come on sudden. They have been friends, neighbors, co-workers or family members. Some we have known well. Others we’ve only been acquainted with. But our attitude towards the death itself is pretty much the same. It happens. We must move on. And we do.
Some people are surprised at just how quickly we move on. It’s a choice. It’s knowledge. There is no reason to dwell on what “might have been” or stop living for ourselves because we can’t get past our mourning state. It happens.
Money, like time, needs to be prioritized. We need structure and balance in our life. We need to decide what is most important to us and at what cost. If we are wise and prayful, maybe one day we really can have it all.
