S3 Ep.2 Time is a Gift, Not a Guarantee — Stewarding Our Days with Intentionality

If time is a gift, how do we steward it with wisdom? Allen & Stacy Jo unpack the difference between busyness and fruitfulness, how to build margin, honor Sabbath as a relationship, and discern assignments vs. attachments—so your calendar reflects your calling (not just your commitments).

What you’ll learn

• ✅ Why holy focus beats hustle—and why presence precedes productivity
• ✅ Practical rhythms to steward time, calendar, and commitments with peace
• ✅ How to build margin and practice Sabbath without legalism
• ✅ Discernment question: “Lord, is this an assignment or an attachment?”
• ✅ How to say no without guilt and align with your current season

📖 Scriptures
Ephesians 5:15–17; Luke 5:16; Ecclesiastes 3:1; Matthew 11:28–30; Galatians 5:22–23

✨ Takeaways

• Time is sacred—treat it as a trust from God.
• Put time with Him before work for Him.
• Protect margins: family and church first.
• Rest is obedience; Jesus modeled it.
• Let your yes be yes and your no be no—Spirit-led.

If this episode helped you

• 👉 Follow/Subscribe to Faithfully Invested
• ⭐ Leave a 5-star review so other faith-driven leaders can find the show
• 🔗 Share this episode with someone who needs margin and rest

Transcript

0:01

Are you ready to build a life, business and legacy that truly lasts? Welcome to Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne, where Faith meets real talk. Biblical wisdom meets everyday life and leadership meets laughter. Together we will uncover God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, helping faith-driven leaders invest in what matters most. Each episode, we explore biblical wisdom, have real conversations, and of course, have some fun along the way because let's be real. Walking in faith is an adventure. It sure is. So pull up a seat, grab your coffee or your sweet tea, and join us as we steward our callings with intention, because when we invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase. Hey friends. Welcome back to Faithfully Invested, where we explore God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, one Kingdom principle at a time. Likewise, this season we're discussing stewarding all that God has given us, like our time, our talents or relationships and resources. We gotta steward that with absolute kingdom purpose. That's right. In today's topic, hits close to home because time is a gift, not a guarantee. So if you've ever felt like your days are running you, instead of you running them, you're not alone. Yeah, that's for certain. You are certainly not alone friends. If you find yourself saying things like, I don't have the time, or where did the day go? Or, well, it looks like another one got behind me, then mm-hmm. You should appreciate Paul's scriptural, the Apostle Paul scriptural insight when he writes. Therefore, be careful. How you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. That's a strong statement. That's a strong statement. He goes on to say, so then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of God is. That's Ephesians 5:15-17. And that sounds like a calling, not just a calendar reminder. Yeah, it's not about hustle or hocus pocus, but instead it's about holy focus. Holy focus. It's not hustle, orcus pocus. It's all about holy focus. Yeah, that's good. Holy focus. Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you feel like you live in a world addicted to busy, which I do at times, then, then hear this, friends.'cause busyness doesn't equal fruitfulness, right? I'm gonna say that again. Busyness doesn't equal fruitfulness because you can fill your calendar and still feel completely empty. I've done it and there are weeks that I still do it. You know, and it's not that I'm necessarily being fruitful, but I'm busy and you can serve, you know, you can serve in five ministries, you can run two businesses, or you can serve in two ministries and run five businesses, whatever it is, and attend every networking event. But you know what, you can still miss what God actually. Has for you in this season? Yeah, that's absolutely right. Mm-hmm. Uh, the distraction of busyness can rob us of our destiny. Yeah. Social media, constant commitments and even good things can crowd out God things. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Even good things. Good things can crowd out God things. Yeah. Um, I recall early in my recovery, my dear mentor, uh, and friend Jonathan. Mm. Uh, shared with me that busyness isn't of the devil. Busyness is the devil E. So think about that. I'll say that again. Busyness isn't of the devil. Busyness is the devil. So if you think about that, if our soul's adversary can keep us distracted by the ruse of busyness, if it can keep us distracted from being so busy, you know, for. Kingdom purpose instead of, you know, sitting with the Lord before we go out to do the all the things. Then if he, if he can distract us like that, then his work's done. Yeah. We have taken ourselves out of, or, or rather he has coerced us mm-hmm. Uh, into taking ourselves out of the advancing kingdom game and our reward for all that work. Mm-hmm. Uh, is exhaustion. Anxiety and frustration, and that's not too cool. Mickey, who is? Mickey? Who is, it's a line from, I'm waiting to see if someone picks it up. It's a line from a movie back in the nineties. I'm not saying what It's so Oh, okay. Okay. Not too cool, Mickey. All right. Well anyway. Yeah, well I'm Stacy, right? But God doesn't call us to hustle for approval. He calls us to walk in wisdom and intentionality. And you know, back to the scripture that Allen referenced earlier, Ephesians 5:15-16, you know, he reminds us of that. And we are instructed to. To walk wisely. Yeah. Um, and wisdom means recognizing time as sacred, not unlimited, because we could wish we had unlimited time sometimes, like today. Yeah. We wish we had unlimited time. Yeah. But we don't. It is, yeah. You know, it is limited. Yeah. If you think about it. And it doesn't, we don't have to think about it too long to realize that time's one of the only things that we can't get back. That's right. Time is our most valued commodity. Mm-hmm. Uh, I like what my, uh, my buddy, uh, John says is that we gotta, we gotta check our non-negotiables. You know, what's, what's time sensitive? What's Yeah. Uh, how, how, what's, what we should be putting things in order and how, how effective we can be to push back darkness mm-hmm. And, and be, and find our resilience, uh, spiritually, physically, and mentally. Not necessarily in that order. We can interchange mentally and physical resilience, but, uh, yeah, we gotta, we gotta check our non-negotiables. And, uh, and what's most important. Yeah. And when it comes to a Christ following walk, uh, time with him. Uh, comes before work for him. Yeah. So, and I like, there's a saying that says, and I forget who said it, I think Jim Rohn maybe had said it at one point. And of course other people have adopted it, but sure, you can always make more money, but you can't make more time. Yeah. Gonna make more time. Once time gets behind you, it's gone. Yeah. You know, and, you know, business busyness is distraction, can actually, can actually rob us of our destiny if we're not careful. Absolutely. I mean, it can, it can deter us, um, from what God has for us every time. Every time, every time. So, you know, with that, we've talked in previous episodes about saying no, and I used to feel guilty about saying no to anything. I mean, women's groups or volunteering, um, new clients, you, you name it. You know, I would say yes just because I felt guilty about saying no. But I started realizing that I was pouring from an empty cup and, you know. Right. And that's, and that's, and you can't, that's not the first time we've brought that up on us. Right. But, but it's worth'cause it's so important. It's e Exactly. It's worth repeating because we don't want you. To, to be the ones pouring from that empty cup. That's right. We gotta get filled and nobody fills the creation like the creator. Yeah. So, but um, and as we've, you know, also we've discussed in seasons, uh, previously, uh, when I was running around doing ministry, when I was doing all the things, um, I was doing everything for God, but I was failing miserably. And spending time with him, you know, and I, and I'd look up and I'd wonder, you know, why am I so exhausted? Why am I so frustration? Yeah, Lord, why am I so angry? And he is like, hello, hello. I gave you recognition for a reason. Right, right. Yeah. And then, and then you realize that it's not that. That God gave you too much to do, right. It's that you said yes to a bunch of, too much that he never even assigned you to do. Right. And I think, uh, if we, if we look at that closely. If we examine that, I, that comes back to pride. Mm. You gotta, you gotta watch out for that. We're not gonna dig too deep into that. Yeah, that's good. Uh, right now. But you gotta pri there's good pride and bad pride. There's a, a dignified pride, uh, as we're, uh, as we're creations under, under one creator. And then there's other, you know, arrogant and narcissistic pride. Mm-hmm. We gotta be careful. Well, and your identity too. That's all. You know, sometimes your identity can get lost in what you're doing. Yes. Or I, yeah. And wow, there's another conversation for another time. There's another conversation time. Yeah. Another episode. We'll get deep on that, uh, uh, on down the line. Mm-hmm. But, um, we're not built, we're just not built to pack our schedules with no margins. That's, that's silliness. Uh, not built to pack our schedules with no margins. We gotta have s margins, silliness. It's absolute silliness. Uh, we gotta, we gotta have time to breathe. We gotta have time to plan and recuperate. Yeah. And, uh, so that we can get back out there to our absolute best ability, uh, or act actually his best ability. Through us. Right. You know, and, and the only way that we're going to, we're going to move forward, uh, in his best ability is when we're taking time to sit with him. Sure. Uh, we're making him that, that, uh, that, uh, first mm-hmm. First fruits. Uh, I like what, uh, pastor Joby Martin says he, he's adamant and, and, and he's adamant on it because the word's adamant on it first and best. You know, from Genesis to Revelation, it's first and best. God says me first. And when we decide to do that, things go a lot better. Right? Um, but bringing it back to, uh, to Luke's word, uh, the Gospel of Luke in five 16, uh, Luke reminds us how Jesus knew how to do that. He, he, uh, Luke reminds us that Jesus often withdrew to lonely, pa lonely places, and prayed. Not that he was a lonely man. He was far from a lonely man, but he got away to lonely places. He got a loan to, uh, silence and solitude with the father because that was his, that was why he was sent, he was sent to fulfill the father's plan. Yeah, and, and I figure, you know, think about it folks, if, if Jesus needed space and stillness, how much more do we. If the son of God and the son of man needed space and steel and as if he knew well enough and as he, as we're as Christ followers, as, as he is our pinnacle example, uh, and he needed it and he modeled it, then why wouldn't we go ahead and and get in that still space? Yeah. And, and get with our creator. I think it's absolutely good question. Yeah. It's something to consider, don't you think? Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely do. And, and you know, there's some practical ways to, to do that. Um, and one, I mean, let's, let's talk about the Sabbath. I mean, and I'm not talking about the Sabbath in a legalistic religious rule, but as a relational rhythm, um, it's a weekly reminder that we are not the source or the savior, right? We're not. We have him. He is our source. He is our savior. And as the proprietors, Yahweh and Jesus, they have all that covered, right? We don't need to, uh. We don't need to worry about that. That's it. And I like what you said, we didn't wanna, we didn't want to go legalistic on it. Right. And we didn't wanna, we don't, it's not, Sabbath isn't a religious thing. Right. We don't ever wanna point to religion. We always wanna point to, it's all about the relationship. Mm-hmm. You know it, you know, transformation has very little to do. With religion or actually vice versa. Religion has very little to do with transformation. Right. You gotta have that relationship. Yeah. So I like, I think Sabbath, I don't think I know from experience that Sabbath says God. I trust you enough to rest. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I, I've said it before, I like naps and for me, naps are necessary. But, uh, in fact, we took one before we started this podcast. We did. It was, it was very nice. We did. Yes, it was. And, and as long again, as long as it doesn't become an idol and it doesn't mm-hmm. You know, that, that 20 minutes turns into two and a half hours and we've lost the day. Right. But anyway, moving on. Yeah. Uh, so. So, yeah, it's, it's God, I trust you enough to take a break. Mm-hmm. I trust you enough to rest because, because God rested again, example, uh, then. Resting and, and exercising. The, the proper Sabbath is it's proper time stewardship. Mm-hmm. Uh, it's not laziness, like I said, it's not laziness unless we make it an idol. Mm-hmm. And an idol is anything that we put higher than God. Right. Anything that gets higher priority than God. Uh, and Jesus reminded the first century religious authorities that Sabbath was made for man and man wasn't made for the Sabbath. So it's not about religion. Right. It's about a relationship. And that's what Jesus said, and our relationship with Christ is everything. And we, and as we take that perspective, as we shift our, our, our perspective to, to relationship over religion, you know, we see that Sabbath is a gift, we can use it wisely or we can use it unwisely. Mm-hmm. And face eventual burnout. Oh yeah. That never turns out well, burnout never turns out well. Wow. We talked about that in, I think it was last season. Yeah, it was last season. We, we talked a lot about burnout. We had one episode about that. Sure. Specifically, but then there's also the power of margin. So margin, we need to keep margin in our schedule. Yeah. So if your schedule has zero breathing room, um, your soul's gonna have zero breathing room. So we have to build in a buffer. We have to build in that margin of time for rest. We have to, yeah, construct our schedule around our family time, absolutely around our church community time. And really steward our time well, when it comes to margin, set your non-negotiables. Right, right. So yeah. So I think one of the best turns, one of the best, um, tools that I've learned is to ask, Lord, is this an assignment or an attachment? Assignment or attachment. That's good. Alright. And it's, Stacy and I often, you know, get together and we, we need to know,'cause you know,'cause he's the boss, right? Mm-hmm. We need to know, Lord, are we operating inside your will? What do you have to say about this? Yeah. Is, is this, is this what you want or are we spinning wheels here? You know, because if it's not, if it's not blessed by him, then we're gonna be spinning wheels and, uh, we don't want to waste time. Mm-hmm. And I guess that's the, the, the whole point of, of this bot, you know, spinning wheels just creates a hole. It does. Yeah. And try, I mean, then you gotta get outta that hole. It just me as we're sitting there. That's cute. As we're sitting here, I mean, yeah. Spinning wheels just creates a hole that you have to get out of. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, um. I'll, uh, that's good. Sorry. That's good. And, uh, didn't mean to hijack that, but just, just happened to be thinking about wheels spinning and, yeah. So if, if we're, if we're just stringing together a bunch of attachments instead of working on his assignment, then we're gonna have to get ourselves out of that hole. Mm-hmm. And, and, you know, get back to the assignment. Yeah. You know, and I'll, I'll speak from experience just because. Uh, just because it's good doesn't mean it's God. That's right. You know, just because it's good doesn't mean it's God. Um, taking, uh, unassigned attachments could be robbing there. There's a, uh, mm-hmm. What we say, how you say paradigm shift, uh, taking on, uh, unassigned attachments could be robbing someone else of, of their divine assignment. Yeah. You know, we don't want to cut the line. You know, right. Wanna stay in our lane. It's important to stay in our lane. It's, it's so vital to get with the Lord and, and drop it like it bit you if it's not yours. Because if you don't, it's gonna bite you sooner or later. Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. We also, you know, another practical way is recognizing seasons. You know, Solomon in Ecclesiastes three, one reminds us that there's an appointed time for everything. Yeah. And there is a time for every event under heaven. So. So friends, there are moments too, hustle. Yeah. I mean, we've had moments where we've had to hustle. I've had moments where I've had to hustle. You know, we've all had those moments. But there's also moments to be still. Yeah. And knowing what season you're in is imperative. Uh, you know, parenting, career shifts, health challenges. God's grace meets us in different ways depending on the season. So be still listen. Know that he is God and God alone, and recognize what season you're in. Absolutely. Absolutely. Are you in the season of hustle or are you in the season of rest? Right. And we don't, and sta hit that, you hit that really well, babe. Uh,'cause we don't ever, and we've mentioned this before, we don't want to demonize hustle. Right. You know, we like to get stuff done, but we wanna make sure we're getting the right stuff done. Right. But too, even in the season of hustle, there's still, you still have to have a margin. You gotta have margin. You time still have margin for rest. Rest. Yeah. Because I was, I burn was setting my, uh. I was, I, I did a lot of traveling last week or so. I did some traveling last week. Yeah. I'm doing a lot of traveling this week and next week. Very rarely do I go three weeks in a row, but hey, you know, but as I'm setting my, uh, my calendar, I, uh, I'll, I'll make this trip and then I'll put breathe on my calendar. Mm-hmm. Or I'll put coffee on my calendar and, uh, and you're not meaning me. No. Well, you know, we, we talk when I'm driving, you know, oh, this is true. We, we do remain in good communication, but, but my, uh. My, uh, superior in Baltimore. He, he was checking out my calendar. He is like, I love it how you put space in there for his, your, your breathe and your coffee space. Between, between, uh, when you've driven two and a half or three hours to get to a job site. Uh, to do the inspection, you're gonna take, you know, 20 minutes, uh, to, to get ready to breathe, to get your coffee and, uh, and hydrate and that so is, uh, that's margin. That's margin. You gotta have That's margin those margins. Yeah. When we, when we put out so much, we got, we cannot, and we, we cannot, uh, ignore rest. Yeah. We can't ignore margin. We'll get it done, but we need to get it done safely. Yeah. You know, and avoid that burnout. Yes. Absolutely. So finally, um, and you, you touched on this, uh, a couple of episodes ago. Um, learn how to say no without guilt. Ooh, yeah. And that's, and again, that's early in my recovery. Mm-hmm. Uh, Jonathan said to me, he goes, bro, you need to exercise your no muscle. And you didn't even know you had one. I did. That's, I was like, what, what's he talking about? And he goes, Mr. Yes man, you need to exercise your no muscle. You're taking on too much. Yeah. And uh, this is a guy, uh, 10 years my junior, and he, he was a great sponsor. Mm-hmm. And, and a great friend and yeah. And I really need to get down there and see Jonathan and Kristen some time. Yeah. But, but, um, but so. Back to the point, uh, say no without guilt, we know. Mm-hmm. Mankind, again, we, I think we said this last episode, mankind has got to know their limitations. Yeah. So even Jesus said, no, he didn't heal every crowd. He didn't go to every town and he knew when to get away and just be still. Pray and rest. It's in the, it's in the gospels. Often. He knew when to get away. I'm gonna give you a big hallelujah on that one. I thought you might Hallelujah. Because I, yeah, you, you said that, I touched on that a few weeks ago and Yeah, I asked a few weeks ago if we could just normalize saying no and recognizing it as a full sentence. Yeah. Because it is a full sentence. It's okay to say no if it's not what you're called to do. That's it. That's it. You know, time management isn't about cramming, cramming more in, you know, it's not, as my grandma used to say, it's not about putting, uh. 10 pounds of sausage in a one pound casing. Yeah. You know, it's more about aligning what matters most. Yeah. Like God and family. Absolutely. So you would do well to invite the Holy Spirit into your daily calendar if you're not already doing that. Right. And it's important, and as we're continuously establishing our relationship with him, ask the Lord in your quiet time as you're taking time to be with him and that. We're preaching to ourselves, right? We're maybe not preaching, but we're speaking at least. At least reminding ourselves, speaking to ourselves. Yeah, Lord, what's your plan today? Mm-hmm. What's your plan today? I find myself doing that more often and more often and more often.'cause as I go out there, you know, I got a calendar. Uh, that I thought through fairly well. Uh, but as I'm, as I'm going out the door, I'm like, Lord, as I, as I'm putting stuff in the cooler to go and, and going, Lord, what's your plan today? Yeah. What's, what's, what's up? And, and he'll, he'll let us know. He will. That simple question shifts everything. Yeah. You know, time with him shifts everything. Prayers before I leave the house, shift everything. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Right on. You know, friends, again, time is really a gift. You know, every breath, every morning, it's not guaranteed. Mm. So, yeah, let's not waste it chasing things that don't last. Yeah. Or that aren't worth chasing or that aren't our calling, um, or that he hasn't called us to do. Yeah. And again, let's be wise stewards. Mm-hmm. Uh, let's learn to obey. A lot of people get a little shifty on, on Obey, but you know. As, as, as Christ followers, you know, we're called to obey, and in this case, concern and time management. It's, it's important to obey his gift to Sabbath. Mm-hmm. It's important to obey. Uh, rest be because he rested. We should rest. Uh, it's important to protect our margins. It's important to practice our spirit led. Because check this, the Holy Spirit, he sent us the Holy Spirit. He's, he's always with us, and he's the spirit of truth who brings us all the truth. And not some of the truth. Oh, all the truth. Oh, the truth. I like what pastor said today, uh, the, the Greek interpretation of our English word all means, um, all. Yeah. That's good. That's a, uh, that's a good one. Mm-hmm. Um, shout out to Pastor Todd and Jan Mozingo at Revive Church Stuart, Florida. Right. Come join us. Um, practice. Uh, it's important to practice spirit led. Communing with the spirit of truth, uh, hearing and more so listening. You know, listening is the, the larger point of communication. And communication is key to relationship. And as we're building our relationship with the Lord, uh, and listening to the Holy Spirit, check out what he says his yes or nos, and let your yes, be yes and your no. Be no per your time with the spirit. Yeah. And let those answers be final. Final. That's it. Don't go back and forth. Right. Let'em be final. That's it. So here's the challenge this week. You know, we always like to give a challenge, practical challenge, practicality and solutions, and then challenges to go with it. So, so look at your week and look and see if your time is reflecting your values. Mm-hmm. Is it reflecting your worship, your trust? Are you building in time to spend with Jesus and your family? Mm-hmm. Or are you just busy taking care of all the things you've said Yes to? That's good. That's good. I'm, I'm speaking to myself, reminding myself. Yeah. And, and, and she's, she's gently reminding me, and as we're reminding you, so, so another question, are you hitting your assigned goals or are you just maintaining habits? Yeah. All right. So let's make space, let's, let's set a goal to make space and meet with Jesus, not just work for him. Yeah. That's when the juicy fruit grows. And we want juicy fruit. The juicy fruit because when, when we're, when we're working with the Lord, when we're, and, and we're gaining that spiritual fruit. Mm-hmm. Uh, the love, the joy, the peace, the goodness, the, the faithfulness, uh, the self-control and, and, uh, I always forget at least one or two, but they're still there. Right. Uh, whenever we're, whenever we're working with the Lord. Instead of just for him. Whenever we're sticking to our assignments rather than a bunch of, of, uh, attachments, then the, then the fruit is juicy. Alright, well I do like a good piece of juicy fruit, right? And not just the gum. Right. But you know, you are not behind folks. You're not too late. Just slow down, listen, obey, and proceed. Knowing that his timing and his timing alone is perfect. Yeah. And understand that your time is precious, so steward it well. Absolutely steward it well. Yeah. And as you guys, um, appreciate this podcast. We thank you for Yes, we do. Being here with us. And if you know someone that would benefit from this, share this podcast with, with them mm-hmm. And, and encourage them to share it with others and. As you, um, don't forget to leave us a message. Uh, you can go to www.faithfullyinvested.com.com and not only can you send us a message there, but you could also become a part of our VIP community. We would love for you to join us in our VIP community. You'll get weekly, uh, as we release our new podcasts. You'll be the first to know. Yep. You will also get. Emails from us only once a week. We only send emails once a week just with some good tidbits. And we would love for you to, to join our VIP community. Right on. Right on. Yeah. And uh, and again, if you like what you're hearing, if you like what you're seeing, please send us a message. Let us know what you like. Let us know what you'd like to. To hear about and don't forget to leave us a five star review. That's right. Well, we thank you and we encourage you to recall daily that when you are faithfully invested, God brings the insight and the increase. Insight. And increase. Yeah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Alright. God bless. Thanks for joining us on Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo, if today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or helped you see your calling more clearly, don't keep it to yourself. That's right. Share it with a friend. Leave a five star review and keep leaning into God's blueprint for your life, your leadership, and your legacy. So until next time, remember, when you invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase.