Yes, plural – budgets. When most people think about the words budgets and stewardship they think only of money. We are called to be good stewards with more than just our cash, but I’m going to start with financial budgeting.
When Taylor became ill, we went from two incomes to one. As his cancer progressed and he required more of my care, we went to half of my income. In the final months before his death we had no income. We did have God’s provision; we still needed to be adjusting our budget. There are people who aren’t even aware that they have a budget. They have nothing formally documented, maybe, but they still have an amount of money that comes in each month and an amount of money that gets spent. You may be able to go for a short time spending more than you make through modern-day “conveniences” like credit cards. Eventually that source of “income” dries up and there you are left to figure out that formal budget.
Budgeting requires looking at what is available to be spent – income for a financial budget – and what needs to be paid – rent/mortgage, food, utilities, etc. in this scenario. As money gets tighter you are forced to more and more fine tune the priorities of your budget. I remember my priorities shifting throughout our loss of income during the Cancer Journey. During the last two months, my sole priority was our health insurance so I could continue to care for Taylor’s medical need. God would use people to feed us. I had at least 3 or 4 months of being behind on my mortgage before the bank would take any action – realistically Taylor would be dead before I got to that point. My point is, whether it was nicely written down or typed up, I had a budget and I had financial priorities. So do I now. So do you.
What I really want to write to you about this day, though, is a different budget. A budget for which it takes different circumstances to realize it even exists. A budget for another area where we are called to be good stewards – Time. (A shout out here – Yes, Kate, I finally got it. I finally understand it. And I want this realization to be less painful for others.)
While Taylor was alive we had a lot more time than I do. The math is not as straightforward as two incomes versus one income, I will grant you that. In an abstract way, Taylor-and-Velinda had a 48 hour day. OK, if we take out the things that we did together and at the same time, it was probably more like a 36 hour joint day. We both slept 8 or 9 hours a night, only I make use that time now (or at least try most nights). We could do things like: Velinda do the grocery shopping while Taylor mowed the lawn. Taylor take the dog to the vet while Velinda did the laundry. But as a widow now, all of those things still need to be done and, while I am pretty efficient as a multi-tasker, I have not been able to be two places at the same time. I am limited to the 24 hour singular day. I – Velinda – can not accomplish everything in 24 hours that we – Taylor-and-Velinda – accomplished in the space of our shared 48 hours. It took me over 2 years to figure that out.
For financial budgeting, there are lots of things that can help you. I just finished Financial Peace University again. The first time was for a financial plan for Taylor-and-Velinda. Widowed Velinda has different financial needs and different financial amounts. I needed to budget for my new situation. I have been working on this material a little differently this time though. What things from all of these financial principles can I use to take on budgeting my time. Just like money, which we discussed above, I have a fixed amount of time available each month/week/day and I have things on which I can spend that Time. I also have more things that I could spend time on than I have time available. Thus the need for a prioritized budget. Unlike financial planning, where you can take on a second job to increase your income – you can’t buy more time. You never get a raise either. So it is actually harder to budget your time than your money – at least for me. And prioritization is a bear. Sometimes you have to stay “No.” to things that you really want to do. Just like you can’t buy every snack or every widget, you can’t attend every meeting or go to every event or belong to every group that interests you. Just like a financial budget, you can steal time from other areas for a short while. Financially, if you stop putting away money for the new car tires or new roof, you get to the point of needing those items and you are tapped out. With Time, we have a propensity to steal from sleep, from leisure time, from exercise, etc. until our bodies can no longer handle it and just like a financial crisis, we have a health crisis.
So your task… apply budgeting principles to your Time. You have 24 hours a day. You get 168 hours a week. List the tasks that need to get done and prioritize them. (Put sleep kinda towards the top of the prioritized list. Reading your Bible and prayer time too.) Work and my commute use about 50 hours of that 168 weekly hours. Seven hours of sleep a night takes another 49. We used to vacuum the house 3 times a week (OK, Taylor did that.) – that is roughly 3 hours a week. I can live with once a week, maybe every other week if something more important comes up. I think you get the idea. Before you add anything to your schedule, consider if you will have to remove something else. It can mean some hard choices – there are several great organizations that Taylor and I belonged to that I can no longer budget time for, and that is OK. It has to be. Take a moment and list out all of the things that you really want to do each week and how long each takes, I think you will really be surprised. I was.
God Provides Grace and Humor 
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