When the word 'Stewardship' is mentioned, most people automatically think of money. But being a good steward has to do with more than money.
When the word 'Stewardship' is mentioned, most people automatically think of money. But being a good steward has to do with more than money. We're to be a good steward of every aspect of our lives that God has given us. Time Stewardship is of the utmost importance to live a successful life. If time is our most valuable resource, even more than money, then it stands to reason that the Stewardship of Time is more important than stewardship of money.
Brett & Josh define stewardship and time stewardship in this episode. They talk about the importance that this right mind-set brings in helping us live as God intended us to concerning time. When we understand some basic concepts, time stewardship can become a lot easier and life can be a lot more enjoyable and manageable. Listen as Brett & Josh share personal testimonies, scripture on how to view time, how to number our days, and how to set and keep the right priorities in life that will help enable you to thrive as a good steward of God's time.
JOSH: I wasn't spending time with the Lord the way that I should. I wasn't spending time with my family the way that I should. It was like a one-track mind for a season. I was losing track of everything else in my life and focusing on one thing. And I think being a good Steward is also keeping our priorities where they need to be. Like making sure that our family and our God is getting the time and energy that that they deserve.
BRETT: What's up? Brett Snodgrass and Josh Howard back at you with another episode of The Iron Deep Podcast. And we are going through a series on stewardship. If you guys missed the last particular episode, we just did a podcast last week on the stewardship of finances. What does that look like as... as a man, as a leader, as a business owner... We really... dove into that biblical stewardship of finances. Today we're going to be talking about the stewardship of time. Right? How do we manage and Steward our time well. That the Lord has given us. So we're going to talk about that. Before we get into that... Again, we want to make sure you guys have all the resources that you need. We got a lot of amazing things going on over our website IronDeep.com. We got a really cool Retreat coming up called The Men's Awakening. This has been, you know... There's been several guys that have went through the Men's Awakening. This is for new guys that want to get to know Iron Deep. That want to get to know other brothers in Christ. Business owners. We're having one September the 22nd - 25th in Helen Georgia. Make sure you guys check that out at our website, and I'd love to chat with you about it. Me or Josh will chat with you about that particular event. So check that out. So Josh... 'Time,' man. This is... this is gonna be an amazing episode. If you guys missed the first couple episodes Josh Howard is joining us as a co-host on the Iron Deep podcast. He just moved from India to Indiana. ...Which is awesome! Pretty much the same thing. -
JOSH: Yeah. Exactly the same. -
BRETT: Exactly the same thing. He moved his whole family over here from India. He's living in Indiana. So make sure we welcome them, right? Because they had... they had amazing community in India, and we want to make sure we're surrounding him with with love, with Community here in Indiana. But Josh, so we're talking about stewardship of time. And this is just... I love talking about this topic, number one. Because I love to think about time. I love to delegate, right? I'm kind of like a master delegator. I love to... protect my time, but my time, many times, gets unprotected. That I feel like I don't have any time. I'm like this is like the resource that I... have none of. And my wife and I talk about I don't have any margin in my life to just be present. And I sometimes lack with time, because I think that I can do everything. And be everywhere at one time. And I cannot do that. And... let's go to scripture. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says that "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens." And time is like... We talk about, it's the most valuable resource that we have. And let's talk about you Josh. Your season, your time, any thoughts? Just... you know... this season of time that you're in and how you're managing and stewarding your time right now? -
JOSH: Yeah. I honestly... it has... because we've shifted internationally, and because we're... we're in the middle of kind of a moving phase and moving season, I will say my time has been all... upside down and everywhere right now. Because we're really trying to get settled and get the family settled, and it does feel like there is way more to do every day than what we have time for. And there's always another couch to put together. There's always another... there's always another... you know... another thing to do. But... you know... There have been seasons in my life, Brett, and I think we can all say this. There's been seasons in my life that I can look back and say, "Man! I was... being a really good Steward of the time that God's given me." And like we talked about last episode in the finances, really being a steward, it's important to remember this, that being a steward is just taking care of of someone else's property. Or someone else's things. And so... Time... God has blessed us with time on this planet.. to do... His work. And to do things that are going to make an eternal impact. And to bless people and to love our families. I mean, He's given us this Incredible Gift of time. And I look back on my life and say, "Okay, that was a season where I did really really good." And then there's been Seasons where I look back and I'm like, "Man! I wasted so much time," or "I wasted time doing this," or "that." Or I stayed so focused on 'this' that I wasn't able to... look after my family the way I wanted to. Or I wasn't able to do Kingdom activity the way I wanted to. Or whatever it might have been, right? Like... I remember one time we launched a business several years ago. It was before real estate, Brett. Launched a business, and man... I dove head into this thing. ...And... I had to work at night in India, like in the middle of the night in India, because that was the time of day in America that it was that things were kicking. - Right? - And man, I ended up, man... for It was about a three or four month period where I look back and my life was just that business. I wasn't... I wasn't focusing on my family the way that I should. I was up all night and sleeping in the daytime, because I... I wasn't able to function properly. And so... it became crazy for three or four months. It ended up failing... the business failed miserably. Like nothing worked that we wanted to. And... I got to a point, man, where the Lord just convicted me so much in my heart. Where He was like, "Josh, you are completely out of whack and out of balance, man." And... and I think balance is key for this, Brett. Like we've got to balance our time. Now there are seasons. There are seasons where things may get busier in certain areas of our lives. But I think it's important that we never lose sight of real priority, right? Like during that season, I wasn't spending time with the Lord the way that I should. I wasn't spending time with my family the way that I should. I wasn't focused on... you know... certain things the Lord was asking me to do the way that I should. I mean, it was... it was like a one-track mind for a season. No wonder why it failed, bro. I was... I was You know... losing track of everything else in my life and focusing on one thing. And I think being a good Steward is also keeping our priorities where they need to be. Like making sure that our family and our God is getting the time and energy that... they deserve. And... focusing on the things that we need to. -
BRETT: Yeah. Yes. No, definitely. A couple things that popped into my mind. Again, going back to just the the definition of stewardship. Taking... care of someone else's... what they've given you, right? And we talked about that. Finances... and I kind of did a story on the last podcast episode like if I were to give someone else $10,000 and they went and bought booze and cigarettes and lottery tickets with it like I that's not a good Steward I would I would be disappointed with them I'm like that's that's not what I give you that money particular for and the same thing comes with the Lord giving us money and time like he gives us this and the Bible talks about the time is so short right we all know it no one's ever said wow this life is so long it just takes freaking forever like no one ever no one ever says that there's can we just get to the end already I wish my life was done everyone everyone says it is short right we can see that with our kids you know more because we can see it with our eyes uh that they're popping up and uh and then you wake up and I'm you know in my mid- 40s and 50s and I'm like whoa I got about 10 15 more years and I'm you know whatever you know it's it's just it's very very short the Bible says that life is a vapor it's a mist and it's just sore so it just goes back to time as a gift and and how do we how do we Steed it well and when we're so head down grinding so obsessed and and focused that we just lose awareness uh of our time I think that's what's happened to you it's happened with me many of times it's even I'm in Seasons even now I'm like why did I sign up for that again like I it was I didn't realize it would take up so much of my time right and I really did but it's like oh but I can handle it because I think I'm Invincible because I think I can do everything all the time and and and I can just do it all so who needs sleep Brett right you know like that's right and that honestly that's what we sacrifice like oh I'll just instead of getting eight hours I can I can do five and I can I can live off that for a while and then you do that for a week and you're like what what was I thinking um you do that and you look like me on this podcast that's what you do but I think number one be grateful for your time we all know someone's sick right now like everyone knows someone probably a family member a friend someone is is really staring death in the face that they're sick cancer and and now they know and they're aware that time is is extremely short and a lot of times we don't think about that until something like that happens so time is a gift and in Psalm chapter um 90:12 says teach us to number our days uh that we may gain a heart of wisdom uh there's this one thing and people talk about this before but like if you had a marble for every day of your life and fills it into a big fish bowl or a big aquarium or whatever and it doesn't look like that many and every day you take that away right and um people have done that like with weeks with their kids or whatever and it's kind of like I don't even want they don't even want to think about it and I think that's the thing that is scary is because people don't want to think about it they don't want to think about the time is short they don't want to think about that the end is coming they they want to distract themselves so much that they don't have to think about reality that time is is temporary in the world right and I think that but I think if we are aware that we time is a gift every day is a gift and how do we Steward it well with what the Lord has given us so anything on that Josh yeah I I heard an illustration once it's kind of cheesy but um it's basically you know uh the the guy said if you've got let's say every day somebody deposited $86,400 into your bank account um but you had to spend every dollar uh or and and at at midnight the the that 86,400 whatever was not spent is taken away and a new $86,400 is put into your bank account like how would you spend it um and the reason why they use that illustration is there's 86,400 seconds every 24 hours and so you've got that many seconds in a day how are we using it are we using it wisely um and and are we really living like you said are we living in a way where the Lord is teaching us to count our our days our seconds our minutes our hours where this is how much time he's given us and are we using it uh to to the best of our ability to um love our family well make the greatest impact possible or are we wasting it I mean I man I I told you earlier a season Bret where I went in where I was so focused on business and trying to get it going I was working nonstop every waking hour um but then there's been other Seasons man where I somehow find eight hours to binge watch a Netflix series like like how did I have the time to watch every episode of Brooklyn 99 I have no idea but I did you know like and and the truth is very very important it is very important it's very important God's gon to ask you that one day did you watch that did you watch that show that was a cool show yeah um so uh but but the truth is at the end of the day I hear people all the time Brent that it's like well I don't have any time it's like I don't I don't have any time to do this or that or or you talk to them about are you spending time alone with the lord well I don't have time to do that really because you did find time to watch that movie or you did find time to play that video game or you did find time to play that app on your phone you thought you were just going to pick it up for five minutes but you were on it for an hour and a half like we find time bro to do what we actually want to do we do like we we'll we'll fit it in and the question is are we willing like the old stepen cvy you know idea are we willing to put the big rocks in first the most the the highest priority items into our lives are we spending quality time with our kids are we spending quality time with our spouse are we spending quality time with Jesus and and and really giving him our best effort uh at relationship because he's a real person too like we treat him like he's not a real person like we we go to the Lord and just throw up all the needs that we have or all the desires that we have or whatever worries and problems we have we throw them up and then we run out of the room and don't even take time to listen to him or spend time with them um and it's like could you imagine if you treated your wife like that you know or or your kids um and so I think at the end of the day man we we find time to do the things that we actually really want to do and um are we willing to really make sure that the highest priority items are really getting our best efforts and our best time or they just getting leftovers where we're dead tired where we're you know I I I can't tell you how many times man I've come after a long day of work or a long day of doing whatever and my wife you know is wanting to spend time and I can't even hardly keep my eyes open because I'm just so tired and it's like that is not giving her my best at all that's not she's getting whatever's left at the end of the day rather than my full attention my full focus and she deserves that man she needs that right my kids need that um so anyway I think at the end of the day we really need to make sure our highest priority items are really getting the time they deserve yeah no I love that and I love the illustration if you guys haven't heard that just the big rocks right uh put the big rocks what are your big rocks uh right it's it's a time with the lord it's your family it's uh your personal relationships the big the big rocks in your life a lot of times we put these little things just our priorities over these big things uh in our life the illustration goes that if you you have this bowl and you put these little rocks in this uh Bowl first you can't fit the big rocks in right but if you put the big rocks in first and you set your calendar and you put your time with your wife time with the Lord time with kids and put the big priorities first then the little rocks obviously fit in around it so um awesome hey let's go into so number one time is a gift right use it wisely and this goes back into just some of the the management techniques of just time management and we're not going to go super deep there's so many resources so many books of time management uh sort of techniques and here's what I just want to kind like going into scripture really goes back with that first segment which is time as a gift but in Ephesians chapter 5 15- 16 it says be very careful how you live all right so start with that be very careful how you live not as the unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil and I love reading through just the Proverbs right because it's just so much wisdom and it talks about how wisdom is is so valuable uh and just reading through and how can I gain more wisdom so that I can live uh as a wise person and this just kind of talks talks into that so it just goes back into you know are you just letting life come at you with a a reaction to it all to a response to it all and you're just everything's urgent nothing is important and you're try just trying to put out fires I talked to one my friends the other day and his response always is I say hey what have you been up to what are you up to today and his response always is putting out fires it's like man I'm like that that's that's a lot but it's just you know always reacting or responding or putting out fires and I think before you do that uh how can you be just intentional how can you go to the word first build wisdom in your life so that you can navigate the day because the days are evil I mean if you're just if you're just reacting to the world whatever you're coming at you it's just there's a lot of Darkness coming at you a lot of evil coming at you and if you're just looking at the news and responding to that and looking at social media and reacting to that and looking at um other people and comparing yourself to them and like ah it's just that's just ugly right that's just an ugly life and you feel ugly and life is just ugly but if you come in it with intentionality with a heart posture of coming to the Lord with wisdom and and you're careful about the opportunities I think that uh that's where you start and then you can manage it manage it from there but Josh yeah I I think you've hit it right on the head bro I think if we're constantly in a reaction mode to everything then it it's kind of like those uh those quadrants I forget what tool it is and it's called but it's the you know if it's the Urgent unimportance right the Urgent importance um the nonurgent important items and then the uh non- urgent non-important items and what ends up happening a lot of times is the Urgent unimportant things um get the the vast majority of our time and energy if we're not intentional if we don't block time out so I've noticed that in my Ministry and in my business man there there are times where in my business we hear this phrase all the time where it's like you know I don't have time to work on my business because I'm working in my business all the time and it's like if we don't take time as business owners for example to step back and be intentional to block time out to actually work on the organization itself work on the systems and the structure and and work on the on the business itself then it ends up I mean there gets cracks in the walls and you know there everything begins to kind of fall apart and if we're constantly in that urgent unimportant quadrant well every now and then we may get some urgent important things that pop up that we are able to do but the non- Urgent important things the things that are long-term import um those never get our time and energy if we're constantly in the Urgent you know urgent quadrants all the time and so I think it's important for us man to actually block time out for those non-urgent important things um and that can be for your business it could be for your ministry or it can be for your family like it is not urgent for me to take my daughter out for breakfast right now that is not urgent at all um I could wait weeks and weeks and weeks to do that um but she's constantly asking daddy when are we going to do a daddy daughter date right when are we going to do a daddy daughter date and pretty soon what ends up happening man that breaks my heart and it almost makes me tear up even thinking about it if I put that off over and over and over again she quits asking yeah is what actually happen right um and or my wife you know hey when are we going to get some time together when can we have just oneone time and it's like if I put that off long enough she just quits asking for it and and that's a scary thing man if your kids just decide well my dad's unavailable so I don't even want to ask or your spouse says they're unavailable because they have so many other urgent things they've got to do what they feel is that stuff's more important than them that's what they feel right um even though your heart may say something different what we're showing them is that there are other things that are just more important than them yeah and and now in our heart we may think well those things are just more urgent it's got to be done right now it's not more important than them but that's not what they feel uh they feel something very different and so we've got to block out time man for the important non-urgent things in our lives and make sure man that it's like a it is like a business meeting on the calendar it can't be moved it can't be changed it doesn't matter what comes up we're keeping that um and and we've got to be intentional about that or we just lose sight of the the most important things in our lives yeah no amen amen one thing that I uh do actually in my life and in business and uh uh try try to be consistent about there was a you know Financial Charles Schwab he talked about a story how he hired his consultants and they came in and he said how do I get more things done in a day how do I get my team to get more things done in a day and he said basically this he said all right have your team uh write down their most important thing for today and then and then they have to do that one thing and when they get finished then they can go to their second most important thing for today and then when they get that done they can go to their third most important thing for today and just have them do that so literally they just prioritize their day and they don't move to the second thing until they get their first most important thing done and he said that changed changed his life changed his business and I think you know if you can start to just start there what's your most important thing for today write that thing down and don't go to the next thing until you get that thing particularly done that's a great time management technique um Josh let's talk about just you talked about balancing right balancing uh what does that look like and I want to talk about just work rest this is attenion for a lot of us men business owners these hard driving leaders this balancing of work and rest there is no rest I can do it all I can put my head down and just trudge through it I can handle it um I don't need rest uh and obviously scripture goes against that right uh Exodus chapter 20 remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy six days you shall labor and do all of your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath through the Lord your God and it talks about this day of rest God showed us that through his creation what does that look like in your own life yeah I've once again I've had Seasons where that's looked really good and Seasons where that's looked really bad and and honestly rather than giving you a good example I I would love our listeners to hear a a negative example of this in my life because I there are consequences that we don't realize and so um I went through a very long season where I really wasn't taking a Sabbath um now what we need to realize is that rule that the Lord made um was for us like God didn't need rest he did it because he wanted to show us what life should look like and he wanted he knew that we needed rest and so he was like guys listen you can't work all the time you've got to rest and so he created that for us that's why Jesus says it's man was not created for the Sabbath but Sabbath was created for man like that's that's what that's why it was created um and so um anyway for me in my life I went through a very long season man where I was working every day of the week now people would not have seen that and thought that I was working every day of the week but what ended up happening was because I was in full-time Ministry I was working all week long and on Saturdays but then Sunday we'd go to church but I was speaking I was preaching I was doing Ministry I was meeting with people and so even though church is usually a time where people can go and rest and worship it was still work for me um and and so what I didn't really realize was um I thought I was getting Sundays off quote unquote but it was really me I was still on like I was still on on Sundays and so there there was a very long season where that was my life I was working six days thinking I had Sunday off but my body and my mind was on on on because I was doing Ministry and what that ended up leading to was a a season of very severe depression and anxiety um where I mean I just I couldn't shut off um I I felt like I was my mind was on all the time um and it ended up I I by God's grace and the organization that I was working with gave me a sabatical I took about I think it was four or five months where I was able to take a paid sabatical where I just uh didn't do anything I I was and it took me literally about a month and a half of just not doing anything to actually start being able to think clearly again dream again um but it really took the whole four or five months for me to be back full energy again ready to go but I really hit a season man of burnout depression anxiety because my body um was on constantly and the truth is man if we do not do what the Lord has asked us to do it is for us I mean he's he's wanting to help us if we're not getting the sleep we need and we're not getting the rest we need um then we will constantly be in a state of um anxiousness worry it can lead to male depression it can lead to all sorts of horrible decisions and mistakes that we make because we're not thinking clearly it could lead to all sorts of stuff and so I just want to encourage people out there after that sabatical I ended up deciding okay Sunday cannot be my Sabbath we begin to take Saturday off every single week I quit quit working working on Saturdays and Saturday became my Sabbath day um I began to take um you know once a month I started taking a time of just retreat with the Lord um and and really started to try to get good Sabbath rhythms in my life where it's not just one day a week but it's also times either monthly or quarterly where I'm away with the Lord by myself um different things like that in order to make sure that my body mind and soul and spirit are getting the rest and the and the filling that they need in order to cons send you so anyway just a just a quick story there bro yeah no thank you for sharing uh thank you for sharing I think we can all uh relate to that to just having feeling like we have to be on especially as Business Leaders having to be on all the time right we're always leading and you so you almost have to be Beyond you're leading your businesses you're leading your families you might be leading a Ministry and you're always you're always on and then we never get that we can't shut off and I've had constant conversations my head my head mind's always spinning I'm always thinking about things I can't shut off I can't settle down I can't rest I can't sleep and so what does that rhythms look like for you guys if you guys listening in what does that look like uh for you uh right uh it's it's designed one day a week but is there a rhythm a monthly Rhythm Is there a quarterly Rhythm uh for you and don't feel bad about just needing that time to rest and don't go away and just work the whole time right um You need that that time of rest uh just to rest our bodies our minds and our our Spirits so um Josh we are about wrapping up on this particular episode but I just want to kind of wrap it up with this we've been talking just about intentionality with your time really it's just to kind of coming back to that time is a gift um how do we be intentional about every opportunity about every second uh that we have and really just taking care of the things uh that matter how do we rest right and it takes it takes extreme intentionality just to rest uh but really how do we make time for the thing for the big rocks the things that matters and I'll go back to you know one of iron Deep's you know core verses that we talk about all the time comes from Matthew 6:33 seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you so pretty much like at all of our events at all of our Retreats at our couples of retreat that we just had we just did a Couple's Retreat and we all went back to that it's like hey seek first if you want your marriage to be amazing seek first the kingdom and then that will start to be amazing if you want to be the best dad that you can be seeking first the kingdom and then that will start to be intentional in your life right so just come back to to that let's wrap it up making time for again the things that mattered seeking first the kingdom and I'll let you kind of share any feedback from the show yeah I I think this has been an incredibly helpful bre that just I think we all need to be thinking through how we're spending our time and are we using it to the best of our ability um to bless people to bless our family uh to love the people around us to make a kingdom impact um really we need to realize that we are Eternal Souls we are Eternal beings and even though our body is not going to last forever our soul will and how we spend the time that we have on this planet is going to determine how we spend eternity which is very crazy to think about um and so we need to really just dive into that deeply and and understand that how we're spending our time here will dictate and determine how we spend our time there um and so are we giving the Lord all that we have are we giving our family the time and energy they deserve are we using our time to make a kingdom impact and not just a a Earthly impact or a fleshly impact um what is what does that really look like every day of our lives and so I'll just repeat Brett what you said man here at the end like let's let's seek the kingdom first with all that we have let's make that our number one priority Brett mentioned that priority list like do the first priority item and don't go to number two until you're done with number one what would it look like if time with the Lord was that number one priority every day that was on your list and you can't move on to number two until that's done what would that look like I mean what would it look like if if you know number two was a quality conversation with your wife um you know like I I mean we need to make sure that our highest priorities are what the Lord's priorities are and if Jesus were going to write down how to spend our time what do you think he would tell us how do you think he would have us spend our time if he were going to dictate every day if he were going to time block our day how would he time block our day if he were going to plan out our week how would he plan out our week and that really is what it looks like to be a good Steward of what God's given us and so let's stay focused guys let's seek the kingdom let's give our family the time and energy they deserve and let's give all that we have for the sake of of of Jesus in this world and really be the best stewards possible of what he's given us amen amen this is a wrap thank you so much Josh for being on the podcast with me I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast and this whole series on stewards here but we're going to be doing some other podcasts as well is about you know the Lord has given us all of these different things uh and we're you know he has given us to him how are we taking care of what he has given us whether it's money time we're gonna be talking about relationships we're gonna be talking about our business we're going to be talking about some of these other things in our life there's G to be multiple episodes on how to be a good Steward of the things that the father has given us hope you guys enjoyed this today make sure you guys go over to iron deep.com check out out again our men's Awakening Retreat that's coming up in September 22nd through 25th of 2024 in Helen Georgia love to see you guys there love to meet you talk to you me or Josh love to just talk to you about that what that looks like and until next time that's a wrap we'll see you guys
