So teach us to number our days...

So teach us to number our days

that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
--Psalm 90:12

This verse leapt out at me when I last ran across it. It's so easy to have a day just pass by--slipping through my fingers with no perceivable substance. I'm not talking about the "mommy days" consumed with wiping noses, playing kitchen, cooking, cleaning, disciplining, or running to the store. These things have value themselves as service and the work of the day. I'm talking about the attitude I sometimes take on where I don't even pay attention to those sorts of things. The day just...passes. I don't love much; I don't serve much; I don't pray much; I don't learn much! The minutes tick by without me being fully present. Psalm 84:10 says "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside." By the same thinking, it's better for me to have a little time in which I'm fully engaged than a lot of time lost to mindlessness. And since the Lord gives me my time as a gift, shouldn't I appreciate it more fully?

I am remembering a Chris Rice lyric from several years ago:

"Teach us to count the days / teach us to make the days count / lead us in better ways / that somehow our souls forgot / life means so much"

Lord, You are the source of wisdom and the numberer of my days. Would You please teach me to number mine, to really pay attention to each of them, so that I may present to You a heart of wisdom? I confess my squandering of time, opportunities, and resources in aimless mental wandering. Lord, I don't want to go through this life a fool, or as a person wise in my own eyes. Only You can change me; only You can help. Thank You for my days; and for Your loving instruction of me.