Time or Money?

A while back I was chatting with my Dad about travel plans for a trip. Calculating the cost-per-mile of driving and comparing it with the cost of airline tickets + a necessary rental car was coming out to about the same amount with driving being slightly cheaper up front. My Dad asked me the simple question, "Well, do you have more time or more money?"

In our case, the answer is almost always time.

This question of more time or money plays into a lot of our everyday decisions. For example:

• eating out/cooking at home
• canned beans/dried
• hiring out for home improvement projects/doing it yourself
• buying farmer's market veggies/growing them yourself
• using the dryer/hanging laundry out to dry
• shopping for a gift/making a gift from what you have
• bakery bread/homemade bread
  

Every day, I face the balancing act of time vs. money. Sure other things like available space, skills, and weather play a role in these decisions among other things, but most often, it boils down to a choice between just time and money.

Time does not always win out. When we needed some summer weight bed coverings this past year, the decision boiled down to time or money. The need came upon us rather suddenly and we could not wait much longer. I can sew and have plenty of fabric to make the two twin size quilts we needed. What I did NOT have was the time to sew two quilts! Money won out in that case. And it was ok because nine times out of ten, time wins out. And the more I can work hard at getting time to win as often as possible, the better we are doing with saving money. And the better we are saving our money, the faster we can pay off our debt. And the faster we can pay off our debt, the sooner we can pay cash for a minivan. And the sooner we can pay cash for a minivan... well, we'll probably need to save for another midwife fee by then. And then... there will always be something else... that is life!

But in the meantime, making those dollars go further by using my resource of time, we are able to live a more abundant and generous life. And isn't that what it is all about?

Ephesians 4:28 - Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.