{"id":340,"date":"2011-03-31T01:00:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/?p=340"},"modified":"2011-03-30T16:42:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T23:42:42","slug":"whose-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/31\/whose-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve recently been rereading several of C. S. Lewis\u2019s books, after first reading them during my college days. I have especially enjoyed rereading The Screwtape Letters<\/a>.<\/em> <\/strong>If you\u2019re not familiar with this classic, it is <\/strong>a witty and penetrating look at spiritual warfare from a demon\u2019s point of view. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"Clock\"Uncle Screwtape, a seasoned older devil, offers written advice to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon who must learn the tricks necessary to secure the damnation of his \u201cpatient,\u201d an ordinary young man. The entire book is written from Screwtape\u2019s point of view.\u00a0 He sagely points out the foibles and weaknesses of fallen man, so that Wormwood can take full advantage of them while tempting his patient.<\/p>\n

Read Screwtape\u2019s words to Wormwood in the following quote and see if you, as a mother, can\u2019t relate to its truth:<\/p>\n

The more claims on life, therefore, that your patient can be induced to make, the more often he will feel injured and, as a result, ill-tempered. Now you will have noticed that nothing throws him into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him\u2026 [This] anger[s] him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Screwtape goes on to tell Wormwood that he must never allow his patient to doubt that his time is his \u201cpersonal birthright.\u201d<\/p>\n

You have here a delicate task. The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we [the demons] cannot find a shred of argument in its defense. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and moon as his chattels.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In case, like me, you don\u2019t know what \u201cchattels\u201d are, the word means \u201cpersonal property.\u201d\u00a0 Do you or I own the sun or the moon? Can any of us list them as personal property when submitting a record of our belongings to our home insurance company? No, and neither can we claim even a single minute of time as our own.<\/p>\n

If we can keep this in mind, if we will truly take hold of this truth, we will come to terms with the \u201cinterruptions\u201d of motherhood. When we\u2019re tempted to resent the \u201cdemands\u201d on \u201cour\u201d time, when our plans are sidetracked by the needs of others, when we\u2019re almost asleep and the baby wakes up again, we can remind ourselves — if God has brought it to pass, then it is part of His plan. And if it is part of His plan, then it is how we, His servants, should joyfully invest His<\/strong> time.<\/p>\n

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