Book Review: The Time of Your Life

The Time of Your Life

(Finding God’s Rest in Your Busy Schedule)

By: Susie Davis

Best For:  Women that would like to hand over control of their time over to God and to recognize their rest comes from being with God and doing what He says.

Overview:  In the introduction of the book, the author quickly states that “this is not fundamentally a self-help, ‘get organized’ book.” I agree with Davis, the book is designed to make you think about time through God’s eyes. Do we allow him to direct our time and order our days? Davis is personal; she begins each chapter with an illustration, mostly from her own life. I love the end of each chapter where Susie Davis calls for a “Time Out” offering challenging questions to think about.  For example, “If a casual acquaintance could peer into your life, who or what would they identify as the driving focus of your life?” Davis encourages the reader to do a self examination of our personal “Time Traps”-- issues of our hearts.

Few Quotes:

“Simply put, all time belongs to Him. He lends each of us an allotted amount of time for our use, but our time is ours only to use, not to own. And we’re responsible to the Creator of time for how we treat His gift.”

 “We may think we need more time for ourselves. But what we really need is time with the One who knows us better than we know ourselves.”

“God says rest, and I do everything but. Why? I believe it has to do with the fact that people have a fallen nature that rails against authority. In this case we rebel against a heavenly Father who has our best interest in mind. We think we know better than He does, and we want to do things our way. It’s our time, remember? So we keep on going, driven by the clock, by the expectations of others, and by our own desires, racing along at someone else’s speed other than God’s.”

“The truth is, ‘time deprivation’ is a lie. It’s what I playfully call a stupid Satan trick…Not one of us on this grand green earth is deprived of time. And not one of us can control time either. Each day each of us is given the same twenty-four hours. It’s our choices that limit us, not our time. The insidious thing about time-deprivation thinking is that it implies God has somehow cheated us out of our capacity to be our best. He has handicapped us by giving us too much to do and too little time to do it in.”

Application:  As I went about my day, I began assessing my time and how I spent it. I looked to see if my priorities matched the time I spent on them. I’ve tried to be conscious of the little interruptions-as I call them-in my day.   I have tried to take the extra time to be kind to someone, listen to them, or pray for them.  When my daughter asks me to hold her, I’ve tried to seize the moment and put down what work I’m doing (that I perceive as important) to cherish a tender moment with my child. I’ve made time to be still before God, draw near to Him and be quiet before Him.

Davis talks about observing the Sabbath and resting. I chuckled when I read that she has had the no laundry rule on Sundays because so do I. I don’t work an outside job, but one of my main jobs at home is keeping up the laundry. I decided about five years ago that I would abstain from doing laundry (and all other housework unless there’s an emergency) on Sundays.  It has brought me tremendous freedom and definitely a measure of rest to live this out, although sometimes I’m tempted! When I implemented this on Sundays, I’ve found that I have a lot more creativity to where I can’t even take a nap; and I’m free to hear God’s voice and what He would show me.

My Thoughts: I came away with the absolute fact, the hard truth, the simple revelation that time is not my own. I don’t own it. Susie Davis does a very thorough job covering the issue of time and remembering that it is a heart issue, not a clock issue. I must seek Him every day for His will, casting aside every trap that would rob me of things possessing eternal value. Can I really ever say I’m too busy for God? I hope not. God has so many things planned for those that will seek Him. We will truly be having the time of our lives if we seek and serve Him!

P.S. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME STARTS TOMORROW…time to move forward!

Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days,  that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”