One of the relentless things about life is that it is passing. Time spends itself no matter what we do with it. It moves at its own pace, and we can’t “save” any part of it. The only part we play in its passing is the purpose to which we put it. We can waste it or use it well. We can fill it full or leave it empty and idle. We can use it for the right things or for the wrong things. And since we can’t “save” it, since it is going to pass at its own pace anyway, we had just as well decide to make the most of it. Young people sometimes let the best years for practice and preparation slip by. And perhaps most of us who are older have realised later in life that some things would have been much easier for us if we had taken time for them when we were younger. Increasing responsibilities force us more and more to care for pressing problems rather than pursue our own preferences. More and more we are crowded into making a living, with less and less time for preparing to make one. And it is discouraging when a man with heavy obligations must try to acquire the training that he could have had and should have had in his youth. Of course many men have recovered from a late start, successfully and heroically and it can and will be done by many more. But often, much of what we have to do could have been done easy earlier. And in looking back we can sometimes see how much time we wasted in doing things that didn’t mean much. Time is much like manna: We can’t hoard it. We can’t save it. The Lord allots each day its own supply. We can use it as it comes or let it waste away. And in making our choices we must remember all along the way that if we choose to do some things, we choose in effect to pass up other things, because time is too short to do everything we would like to do.

Time is the very essence of all our opportunities. And we had better do earlier the things that are easier to do earlier, and not forever be living our lives just a little too late.

A high school student learned a valuable lesson as he took a college entrance exam a few months ago. The night before the test, he read through the instructions he had received. He verified the time the exam would start. He sharpened his pencils. He put his calculator in his backpack.

He felt ready for the early-morning test. The next day, as the test began, the teacher invited the students to use their calculators on the math section. The young man pulled his calculator out and pressed the power button. But the screen remained blank. He tried again. Nothing. And then the shocking reality hit—the batteries were dead, and he had no replacements!

He would need to do the math section the old-fashioned way—with paper and pencil. He learned something that day and it had nothing to do with math, science, or reading comprehension. He learned about the value of preparation. He thought he was prepared, but when the crucial moment came, he faced a problem he had not anticipated.

He learned that sometimes being prepared means foreseeing the unforeseen. Most of us have found ourselves in similar circumstances. We feel comfortable about our lives until a disaster or misfortune makes food, fuel, or resources hard to come by. And it’s not only tragedies that require our preparation— sometimes an opportunity arises, and we find that our lack of preparation may have closed doors and limited our future. So how do we prepare? By focusing on things of greatest worth. By placing more value in people than in things. By reading and pondering words that strengthen us spiritually. By taking care of our emotional and physical well-being, living within our means, and enriching our minds through lifelong learning. All this and more will bolster our ability to get through the challenges and seize the opportunities.

The rain falls, and the sun shines, on all of us to varying degrees throughout our life. Now is the time to think carefully about the future and how to create our best life. Now is the time to prepare. This is our time, our season. We can’t really go back to another time or trade places with someone else, but we can enjoy the present and meet the future with faith. The wisdom of the Psalmist echoes through the ages: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; [let us] rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

By Samuel Enos Eghan