The Most Valuable Gift Someone Can Give

I attended two funerals this weekend. While sitting in both of them and just thinking, something very profound hit me. I am sure I am probably not the first one to look at life from this point of view but it is still profound (at least to me) none the less. When you think about the most valuable gift a person can give to someone, several things might come to mind. Some might say money, some might say love, some might say any number of possessions. Although some of those answers are good none of them are what I am thinking of. There is something that every single person possesses that is the most valuable commodity in the world. Once this possession leaves you, one can never get it back. A person can not make more of this possession and you can not earn or gain any more of it by any means. By this point some of you know what I am talking about. The most precious of commodities is time.

I believe that the time that you give someone is the best expression of love you can give. Think about it. Once you give it you can not get it back. It is the one thing that you have total control over and your most valuable possession. I know that most of our time is spent at work but that is time that is given for compensation. When you spend an hour with someone that is a gift that you will never get back and if it is given to someone that you want to be with it is given unconditionally.

I spent some time with my beautiful wife this weekend. That was time well spent. I spent time at church this weekend, celebrating in worship with 700 people, the greatness of God. That was time well spent. I spent several hours this weekend sharing grief with friends over lost loved ones who they will never get a chance to give time to. Time comforting them. Time well spent. Some other time was not spent as wisely. I did spend some time in front of a mindless time sucker called TV. Time not spent wisely. All that to say this. Time is the one commodity that we don't know how much we have and yet I along with so many spend haphazardly without concern as if there was an endless supply. I pray that I can give my time to the most important things in life, God, family, friends, church. I don't know how much time I have left but I know that if I give this most valuable of gifts to the things that matter the most then my life will be fulfilled and full and there will be no regrets when my account of time has a zero balance.