Object lesson: how are you? "Spend" Your time?

This is a practical lesson that you can use to teach children the importance of spending time with God every day. To complete the lesson, you will need $ 168.00 in play money. (Many dollar stores have play money.) The suggested Bible verse to use is Psalm 90:12, but there are many others if you want to do a little searching.

This is a suggested dialogue. Feel free to adjust it according to the children you minister to.

I have $ 168.00 in play money here. As it happens, there are 168 hours in each week, so each dollar will represent one hour. How do you spend your time? (Count bills as you go through the options below.)

Let’s say you sleep about 8 hours every night. Multiply 8 hours by 7 days and you get 56 hours. Let’s set aside $ 56 from our pile.

Then comes school. Let’s say you average 7 hours per day. That will equal another 35 hours extracted from your week. We will reserve $ 35 for that.

Everyone needs to eat, so we have to allow time for that. Let’s say you eat 3 meals a day and an average of 20 minutes per meal. That equates to one hour a day or 7 hours a week. I’ll set aside 7 more dollars.

Homework? Most nights you probably have chores to do. Let’s say you average 5 hours per week; there are another $ 5.

Watching TV. Many people do more, but let’s say you watch 2 hours of TV every weekday and overtime on the weekends. That will add another 20 hours, so we will reserve another $ 20.

Play, including video games. Once you start playing, especially a video game, it’s hard to stop. Let’s say you average 2 hours a day on video games. That works out to another 14 hours, so I’ll reserve another $ 14. That only leaves us with $ 31; not much for a week.

Wasting time is also very easy to do. Let’s say you waste 1 hour a day, which will add another 7 hours, so I’ll set aside another $ 7. Now we’re down to $ 24.

Time on the computer, including Facebook, Internet, email, etc. Even if it’s only 30 minutes a day, that equates to another three and a half hours. Let’s round that to 4 and reserve another $ 4.

What about sports activities? If you are on a sports team or in a band or choir, you have to practice. Let’s say you add another hour each weekday plus a few hours on the weekend. That adds another $ 8. Now we have $ 12 left for the week.

The question is, of all that time that has “passed”, how much is spent with God or even thinking about God? God may be part of the above things, but you must acknowledge and acknowledge that He is there while doing those things. But let’s look at this from a different perspective.

What are some things you can do to “spend” time with God? (Let the children give some suggestions. Calculate the amount of “dollars” they can represent each week and count the bills).

– Read the Bible (15 minutes a day = $ 1.00)

– Pray (15 minutes a day = $ 1.00)

– Go to church and Sunday school ($ 2.00 – $ 4.00 depending on the number of services you attend).

– Memorize Bible verses (15 minutes a day = $ 1.00)

– Add others as the children think of them.

Think about how you spend your time. Are you spending your time wisely? God says in Psalm 90:12 that it is important to count your days. That means you need to use your time wisely and take the time to get close to him. As you do so, he promises to get closer to you.

If you find that you are doing something that is a waste of time, consider quitting and spending that time with God. For example, is spending time with God more important than watching television? If you give up a thirty minute television show and spend that time with God, it will give you a little over two hours ($ 2) a week and it would be time well spent.

Will you make a decision this week to spend time with God every day?