THE VALUE OF TIME

Once upon a TIME, Satan and his Board of Directors were concerned over the fact that their business was not booming, and they wanted to have many customers. He decided to ask how possible it will be to have many clients, and a huge reward goes to the person who can find a solution to the problem.

One dwarf demon jumped up and said “I will go back to earth and convince the people that there is no heaven”. Satan answered “fool; the people won’t believe you because they know there is heaven”.

Another fat, huge and ugly demon responded, “I will tell them there is no hell”. Satan replied, “Idiot; that will not work as the people are aware that there is hell”.

The debate continued in search for the solution to the lingering problem about poor customers in hell (Satan’s business empire).

A wise, old, black veteran, slim demon, looking haggard at the back stood up and exclaimed, “If you allow me to go back to earth, I can fill this place in just a second” the wicked old veteran laughed, to the amazement of the Board Members, why was he laughing and insulting them as dull and illiterate board members who can’t even suggest something of importance to the progress of Satan’s kingdom? The dangerous wicked old black veteran demon finally shouted, “I will tell them: ‘There is TIME’, there is no hurry, let them enjoy and have merriment”. Satan rose from his throne and clapped; soon afterwards the board members shook their heads in affirmation for a good idea and applauded the old wise veteran demon.

Guess what the reward was!

TIME remains a mystery and the best gift God has for humanity, seconds go by, minutes tickle and hours soon gone past, comes day and night, then it’s a month, year, decade, generation, jubilee, century and millennium. We complained “There is no TIME”, when actually we do not value TIME and appreciate God for the TIME He has given us.

A French Proverb goes thus “All the treasures of the earth cannot bring back one lost moment”.

Surely, TIME remains a virtue that every being most value. People who had changed the world valued all the best opportunities they had, and today we hope to be like them, we call their names often. From Neil Armstrong who was the first man to land on moon to Thomas Alva Edison, a great inventor, who failed as much as 1000 times in his experiment to Abraham Lincoln who had failed in his business yet he became American best President, Sir Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Helen Keller, Marie Curie, and host of others who never looked at TIME as too short, or too long to achieve laurels. One thing common about them is that; they valued their TIME, irrespective of the field they find themselves. ‘You can succeed’ says Sumbye Kapena, no matter the wrong personality type, barriers and infirmities, just value the best opportunity of TIME you have, and live a foot print for generations to appreciate God, and then your name will be crested in gold, so said these quotes “TIME is a coin of your life, it is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spent it for you” – Carl Sanburg.

“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your TIME, until you value your TIME you will not do anything with it” – M. Scott Peck

The wise old veteran demon’s adage “There is TIME” has become the source of our failures today, and that is why he rules the world.

Hence, the beautiful Proverb that is poetic:

• Take TIME to laugh, it is the music of the soul;
• Take TIME to think, it is the music of power;
• Take TIME to play, it is the source of perpetual youth;
• Take TIME to read, it is a fountain of wisdom;
• Take TIME to pray, it is the greatest power on earth;
• Take TIME to love and be loved, it is God given privilege;
• Take TIME to be friendly, it is the road to happiness;
• Take TIME to give, it is too short a day to be selfish;
• Take TIME to work, it is the price to success.

              (IRISH PROVERB)

It is a fact of life, that there are two categories of people in the world that visualize TIME: Negative people and Positive people. Negative people are those who are tremendously affected by TIME, as such they waste TIME to gossip, fight, being jealous, envy, greedy, keeping malice and are entangle to vices. These people will waste TIME to satisfy their whims and fancies. On the other hand, Positive people are those who value their TIME and try to make the world a better place for us to live, their virtues are humility, obedience, patience, peaceful, trusting in God, courage, etc.

“TIME wait for no one”. This is the TIME, act now; master TIME, conquer TIME, and you can change the world.

Finally, “Life can be an unpredictable destination or existence which is never completed no matter how programmed, but the wise live it to the fullest till the unknown comes” – S.I. Onuoha. Therefore, let us set our priorities right by doing the right things at the right TIME, at the right place, with the right intention, then the success of our destiny is determined. TIME management is a priority in our scale of preference and as such we must be conscious of the amount of time we spent on specific activities.

Pertinent question that should ring in our minds are:-

·         How do I spend my TIME each day? {as a student, teacher, parent}

·         How do I allocate TIME in my activities? {sleep, prayers, studies, siester, recreation, etc}

·         Do I have self-examination before I sleep? {an unexamined life is worth not living, says a Philosopher}

Our success depend on our TIME management and our failures depend on our abuses of TIME, have a Daily TIME Planner on each of your activities and the ladder to success is determined.

Our attitudes controls our lives, attitudes are secret power, working twenty-four hours a day. For good or bad, it is of paramount importance that we control this great force.