Telling Time

There's an opportune time to do things, 

a right time for everything on the earth. Ecclesiastes 3:1

I struggled learning to tell time when I was very young. There are a lot of reasons why it was so difficult, but I distinctly remember how hard it was at that age. Of course this was before the age of digital watches and clocks. In fact, we used to be able to call a phone number that would tell you what time it was. It was one of the best ways of making sure that your clocks were accurate and that you weren't terribly off base.

I don't have the same issues anymore (thankfully!) but I don't think that reading a clock is the biggest problem for most people either. We are able to accurately determine what time it is with the technology that is readily available. Sadly, some of us still aren't very good at telling time. I'm not talking about the hours and minutes of the day, but our ability to determine the right moment for thoughts, actions, and words.

There is a time that is right for us to do something and there is a time when it is best for us to be patient. There is a time when we should speak and a time when we should remain silent. There are times that demand immediate action and others that require careful consideration and strategic movements. Our struggle is that we sometimes have a difficult time determining when that season is right and instead handle varying situations with identical solutions. When we treat every season the same way we alienate people around us and become ill-equipped to handle change. Learning to accurately tell what time it is comes from a willingness to be corrected, a desire to learn, and the humility to admit your mistakes. Healthy, maturing people are willing to learn this valuable skill and hopefully get better at it over time.