 Your Quality Time vs. Quantity Time By Priscilla Mitchell and Bonnie Peacock
"Mom, you know. We never had the biggest home or the nicest, but you always spent time with us."
My middle son had given me the best compliment I had ever received. A popular catch phrase is bandied about by absentee parents and workaholic spouses these days, "We may not spend a lot of time together, but what time we do have is quality time."
Who determines if time shared is quality or not? We are only half of the equation. So we plan an occasional weekend or a cruise next year and actually look forward to that all-important quality time. Surely it will compensate for our otherwise lack of attention.
Amid our high tech technology, our society has lost the art of enjoying comfortable, relaxed, unhurried time together. We are surrounded by gadgets that save us time, and yet we are more rushed and stressed than ever. We press a couple of buttons and the microwave delivers our dinner. Our bills are paid online, vacations are planned from our laptop, and we converse with distant friends over the worldwide web.
I wonder if we are also assigning God a slot in our Day Timer. "Oh, I talk to God every morning as I drive to work. I don't feel I need to spend a lot of time with God. He knows my heart. That's all that matters, isn't it?"
But is it enough? What if God is more about quantity time than quality time? How can He be Lord of our lives when we squeeze Him into our already overbooked schedules? How can we live for God if we don't live with God? Enoch walked with God, and God took him. (See Genesis 5:24) What would happen if we walked with God? Where would He take us?
In His final hours, Jesus brought Peter, James, and John to Gethsemane. He asked them to watch while He went a little further to pray. He returned to find them sleeping. "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" He expected them to spend time-extended time.
In Matthew 23:37, Jesus lamented over the city of Jerusalem. Is it possible that today He is saying, "My child, My child, so often I would like to hold you close as a mother does her children, but you won't let Me"?
In this world filled with turmoil and strife, God would like to hold us in His arms and whisper, "I'll never leave you or forsake you. I'll be with you until the end of time. Don't be afraid. I will help you. I am going to take care of you." (See Hebrews 13:5-6.)
Instead, we mutter microwave prayers and insert a CD so we can worship with the lyrics instead of really thinking of our own expressions of praise and gratitude for our Savior-our Lord.
And then we wonder where our peace went? We must realize that we can only have true peace when we are in the presence of the Prince of Peace. When we leave Him behind we are also leaving behind the Peace-speaker. Peace of mind is a product of prayer.
"Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passseth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).
God isn't interested in occasionally running into us, catching up on the latest, listening to what we want Him to do that will make our lives more comfortable, and then watching us walk away from Him until the next time we need Him.
Nothing in our lives is more important than spending time with God. Lots of time makes quality time. Why not linger close? Get to know Him, talk and then listen, read His love letters, spend time, more time, forget the time ...
Priscilla Mitchell and Bonnie Peacock both attend the First United Pentecostal Church in Odessa, Texas. Pastor Terry Pugh. | 
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; ...honor to whom honor is due. Romans 13:7
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