What Do You Do When You Gain Time Back?

How many times have I said, I need more hours in my day?? Granted, it's usually followed by the statement that even with more time, I'd still complain that I need more time. Well, I'm about to gain about 3 extra hours in my day and my goal is not to complain about needing more time. However, with this new found time, I'm kind of terrified, seriously.

Currently, I work 8:00-4:30 in downtown Nashville. Since I'm downtown, I am unable to park at my building (unless I want to pay for a parking garage near by, which I don't). I generally park at The Titans stadium (or the baseball stadium) and take a shuttle bus to and from my office. Working the later shift like I do, I should plan on 45 minutes, on a good day, to an hour on a decent day just to get to parking lot. I need to plan on 15-20 minutes for the shuttle bus to get me to or from my office. On average, my commute, including the shuttle bus, is about an hour and 20 minutes to an hour and a half one way. That's almost 3 hours a day that I spend commuting to my job.....3 HOURS!!!!!!

Officially in 2 weeks, I'll be working from home 3 days a week and only going into the office 2 days a week, with the hopes that that goes to 1 day a week in the near future. That means for those days I'm working at home, I'm gaining 3 hours to my day. 3 hours a day I'm gaining, and 9 hours a week that I'm getting back due to not having to commute to downtown Nashville.

I'm stoked for that. I worked from home today and I love it. I have zero stress, I accomplish a lot when I'm home. I get tons of work done with no interruptions and when needed, I can do some household chores, like laundry. WOW! Amazing. I don't even mind working longer because I can. I attempt to leave the office on time the majority of the days, so I can go ahead and conquer my commute, but now, I can work and I don't mind it!

However, I'm nervous about this new found time. I'm nervous that I'm not going to be a good steward of my time. This is a gift, this is 3 hours given back to me to do whatever I please with it. 3 hours added to my day. I complain that I don't have time to do stuff, but I can't use that any  more. What if those 3 hours slip away from me and I completely miss them? What if I waste them doing trivial things, like playing candy crush or perusing Facebook. What can God teach me in this time?

Yesterday in church, the sermon was discussing Joseph. The sentence that stuck with me the most from the sermon that  I have been pondering is, "We go to God when we are faced with troubles, but we don't go to Him as much when things are going good. We are short-sighting ourselves by doing that." (Paraphrasing, because I'm too lazy to get up to get my journal!) I'm giving an extra 3 hours a day, I have no excuse but to spend time with God. I'm not saying spend the whole 3 hours with him, but I  need to be better about making time for Him.

It's so easy put yourself on cruise control when things are going good, and things are going good for me. Every year I say I'm going to read the bible from front to end, I have yet to completely finish that. Do you know how many times I've read Genesis?!?! I should have that book memorized by now! It's so easy to find an excuse to put quiet time with God on the back burner, however that excuse is about to become extinct for me, at least for 3 days a week!

My prayer is that I can utilize this time I'm being given. Not everyone gets that. I can learn so much from spending some of that time with God. There are things on my heart that I'm specifically praying for, but I know I need to be more intentional and listen more. I'm great at praying, but not always great at listening.

I'm about to receive the best gift, I better put it to good use!