Years ago, I was employed by a company that offered an allotted number of paid days off per year. It was a ‘use them or lose them’ policy; if not used, they were forever gone. It was a no-brainer to not take full advantage of the paid days.

Are you taking advantage of your paid days? Every day at precisely 12:00 AM God gifts us with 86,400 seconds of life. The clock s…tarts ticking and the countdown begins. And at the end of the day, those seconds are gone because time waits for no one.

“LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days (seconds) are numbered–how fleeting my life is (Psalm 39:4 NLT).”

On average, 28,800 seconds of our day is spent renewing our mind and rejuvenating our body with sleep. That leaves 57,600 seconds of waking seconds. Each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does a survey on how the average American spends those waking moments. Below are the 2010 findings submitted via an online questionnaire; the survey did not consider time spent on social media, texting, or maintaining our spiritual health.

Certainly these figures should be viewed as estimates, but the tabulations do indicate we only leave ourselves about 3000 unused seconds each day. Let’s take a look at how most of us allocate those seconds.

• Working: 29,628 seconds
• Commuting: 2820 seconds
• Housework: 3600 seconds
• Eating: 5400 seconds
• Watching TV: 7200 seconds
• Leisure, sports, exercise: 8100 seconds

God, in His kindness and mercy, gifts us with a free-will to use every second of our day as we choose. Of the 31,536,000 seconds in a year, the 86,400 seconds in a day, the average American dedicates, at most, 3000 seconds or 3% of our day (50 minutes) to nurturing our spiritual well-being.
Let’s compare that 3% to the other tabulated figures given in the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey.

• Working: 34%
•Sleep: 33%
• Commuting: 3%
• Housework: 4%
• Eating: 6%
• Watching TV: 8%
• Leisure, sports, exercise: 9%

If you are a parent with kids at home, you might wonder where kids fit into your 86,400 day.  Where in this tight timeframe schedule do you fit homework, bathes and bedtime stories; oh, and let’s not forget nurturing their spiritual needs? For the average American our daily allotment of 86,400 seconds will be overdrawn by 5 PM. And as have already mentioned, there is no grace period on time. Time waits for no one. Your daily 86,400 seconds are gifted by God on a “use it or lose it” basis.

How are you using your 86,400 seconds each day?