Numbering our days.
Making them count.
Making them matter to us in a way that brings our heart closer to wisdom, & with a foundation of mercy, grace, kindness, goodness, love & faith.
If you’re wondering how to make the most of your days — listen in here or read right below!
**What follows is most of episode 24: Numbering Our Days from the Praise Through It podcast. Listen here, or read on!
You know when something keeps popping up, it seems like someone’s trying to tell you something? At least, that’s the way I always take those situations. Like when your dog keeps coming back to you, over and over, then sits at the door staring either longingly out of it or longingly at you. That’s your clue: let me out, Mama. In the case of our lives, our hearts and our minds, there are similar hints and clues as to what we should be paying attention to. My current situation: the phrase ‘number your days’ keeps coming up, along with a specific set of song lyrics.
In the Psalms, a prayer of Moses shows up in chapter 90. Verse 12 says, ‘Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop a heart of wisdom.” Within a 24-hour period, that phrase and verse showed up about half a dozen times for me, all in completely different contexts. To me, that means it’s something I should be paying attention to.
The simple meaning of the verse is Moses asking God to teach him how to make his days count so that his heart is prepared with wisdom. Teach me how to make my days count. What a powerful question to ask the Creator of the universe.
So I got to thinking, do my days count? Of course they do. So do yours. Our days count on a humanity level, as in -- we are still here on this earth so we matter and have work yet to do.
But the way it’s phrased in this verse means something different. My study Bible says this: “it means to take advantage of our short time here on earth in order to nurture a heart directed by wisdom.”
Doesn’t that sound lovely?
When we learn to number our days, we learn to spend our time differently. And we learn to tune out all the noise of what everyone else in your life and on your social media feeds tells you to do with your time, and we tune and nurture our heart toward wisdom, toward deep, meaningful things that matter to us.
I know there are some things we do in our days that feel so mundane, we wonder if they really matter to meaningful life. For encouragement in that area, listen to episode 19 about Being on Assignment in your daily life. What today is about is this: making sure our pockets of time in our days count toward the life we want to live.
When we learn to number our days, we learn to prioritize.
We see that having a meaningful relationship with our spouse means choosing to look in her eyes instead of texting while she’s talking. We see the same for our children. We look up more often.
We see that this work can wait, so I’ll walk with my mom or my neighbor. The next day we see that this work can’t wait--and I don’t want it to wait--so today that’s my priority.
Today I’ll number my day with this assignment, and tomorrow with that assignment -- that’s what making our days count means.
Numbering our days doesn’t have to be this pressure to squeeze it all in, all the time.
Numbering our days should be a habit we form. A habit of taking a deep breath and saying: whew, what matters here?
Numbering our days can look like these questions:
Is this worth it?
Does this fit here?
This fits, but does it belong?
What matters here?
Sometimes what matters will be getting to church on time, socks on those little feet be darned.
Sometimes what matters will be teaching your daughter that acceptable fashion is a construct, so she’ll be wearing that mis-matched outfit to school today.
Sometimes what matters will be helping your friend; her heart hurts & it’s unbearable for her & carrying her burden is what Jesus would do, so you’ll be late to church or you’ll sacrifice a couple hours out of your week.
Sometimes what matters will be celebrating, so you’ll get ice cream on a non-sweets day.
Sometimes what matters will be tending to your own soul, so you’ll say ‘no’ to an invitation that on any other day would be the epitome of fun for you.
Sometimes, what matters will be the new experience, so you’ll set fear to the side and ask it to hold on for a hot minute.
Knowing what matters resets our focus, giving us a new perspective, opening our eyes and our hearts to a deeper understanding of what God has for us and the world. Knowing what matters helps us number our days, take advantage of our short time here, with each other, and nurture a life we love.
By numbering our days - figuring out what matters and living from that point - we gain a greater understanding, a greater wisdom, toward what God wants, what He wants His kingdom to look like, what He wants us to do for one another, and who He’s creating us to be. We are each a continual evolution of the person God is working to refine and polish and elevate with each passing day, until He calls us home to be with Him.
Numbering our days toward wisdom looks different for every single one of us, because the assignments God has given us vary from human to human. But the encouragement to do so - to number our days - is meant for every single one of us.
I mentioned there was also a specific song that keeps popping up, too. It’s called Less Like Me, written and performed by Zach Williams. The chorus says this:
A little more like mercy,
A little more like grace
A little more like kindness,
Goodness, love and faith.
A little more like patience,
A little more like peace.
A little more like Jesus,
A little less like me.
This is what I’m trying to number my days with. This is what I’m trying to color my choices and priorities with. When I get frustrated at home, when I see something in the news that bothers me. When I don’t understand what people are doing, when I make a mistake. I’m trying to number my days toward wisdom with the foundation of mercy, grace, kindness, goodness, love, faith, patience, and peace.
A tall order, but one made possible by small, incremental moments where we choose to make it count. Little moments where we choose to love first, judge last. Little moments where we choose to set a priority and stick with it. Little moments where we know the life we want deep in our hearts to live, and then make it so to the best of our ability.
Sometimes we have to do the best we can with what we have, right where we are.
Sometimes we’re given the gift of moving some things around so that we can make exactly the life we want, the one that counts to us, our people, and the world around us.
What’s true about the encouragement to make our lives count is that it can feel like a tall order you can’t fill.
What’s true about the encouragement to make our lives count is that it can feel like an unbearable pressure to do something big and grandiose.
What’s also true about it is if it’s encouraged in God’s word, it’s possible.
What’s true about numbering our days is that when we do so with God by our side, the priorities make themselves clear and our hearts are freer and wiser.
What’s noble about numbering our days is the example we set for our kids to not worry about the things that don’t matter.
What’s right about numbering our days is the perspective and focus we gain by resetting our eyes and our hearts on making it count.
What’s pure about numbering our days is it’s a way to bring our hearts--raw, honest, and open--before the Lord and ask for His teaching.
What’s lovely about numbering our days is the delight that comes from a day well spent.
What’s admirable about numbering our days is the knowledge that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, calling-wise. I know some of us don’t like prescriptions, but maybe this is one that will do us enough good that we follow it.
What’s excellent about numbering our days is what it teaches us about our priorities and our choices.
What’s praiseworthy about numbering our days is the elevated experience of a rich, meaningful life the habit offers.
The end of Psalm 90 says this: Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands -- establish the work of our hands!
All of this to say, take advantage of your days. Recognize the gift that is life. Use it. Use it well. Make it count by doing what matters to you. And let the work of your hands be established under the favor of the Lord.
Every night, little kids around the world try to stay up later by devising a series of techniques that look and sound fancy, but always come down to one word: stalling. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we can see us grownups doing the same thing in our own lives, just a different version. We might not ask for 700 things once we’re lying in bed, but we fiddle with this and that until we have no choice but to face the chore.
In our house, we try to use this as a teachable moment. We say things like: Sure, we can play one more round of this game, just know that’s one less book we can read at bedtime. Never, ever is it a threat. Always, it is a way to teach our child to discern: what matters more to me today? One more round of this game, or one extra book at bedtime? It is a way to teach her what it looks like to pay attention to numbering her days, making them count in a way that matters to her, so that her heart may grow in wisdom. All with the foundation of mercy, grace, kindness, goodness, love, faith, patience, and peace. And if we’re lucky, we’ll take that lesson on ourselves.
So today…
May you find it easy to number your days this week, as you pay attention to what matters to your heart.
May the journey toward numbering your days be peppered with moments of surprise, delight, learning, and grace.\
May the experience of numbering your days as you develop a heart of wisdom be one in which you invite God to go before and with you.
And may the foundation of mercy, grace, kindness, goodness, love, faith, patience and peace be strong and mighty, a fortress of certainty in an otherwise unpredictable life.
Show notes:
Less Like Me by Zach Williams
Episode 19: Staying on Assignment
Psalm 90
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