Time Is Our Greatest Currency
You can’t save it. You can’t store it. You can only spend it.
I have a riddle for you.
What is free, but priceless…
Something you cannot own, but you can use it…
Something you can’t keep, but you can spend it…
Something that once you’ve lost… you can never get it back?
The answer is time.
The average lifespan today is around 75 years.
Of those years, the average person will spend:
26 years sleeping
11 years watching TV
8 years shopping
5 years browsing the internet
4.4 years eating
3 years washing clothes
1 year deciding what to wear
It’s staggering when you see it laid out like that.
We go to great lengths to track our money. We budget it. We plan it. We worry about it. Because we know if we don’t… one day we’ll reach for it and there won’t be anything left.
But how many of us budget our time with that same urgency?
“It Might Have Been”
John Greenleaf Whittier once wrote:
“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.”
I don’t want to get to the end of my life and think, If only I had more time.
Because the truth is — we aren’t guaranteed more time.
Every morning, you wake up with 86,400 seconds deposited into your account.
And tonight, whatever you didn’t use wisely… disappears.
Tomorrow, if you’re blessed with it, another 86,400 seconds will be there.
But there is no rollover.
And we never know which day the account will close.
That’s sobering.
So how are you going to spend your next 86,400 seconds?
How about your next 60?
Regrets at the End of Life
A nurse who worked with the terminally ill once asked her patients a simple question as they prepared to leave this world:
“Do you have any regrets?”
Some of the most common answers:
I wish I had spent more time with the people I love.
I wish I had lived up to my potential.
I wish I had let myself be happier.
Rarely does anyone say,
“I wish I had spent more time at the office.”
Or, “I wish I had scrolled a little longer.”
Sometimes we wear busyness like a badge of honor.
But busyness is not the same as purpose.
A Christmas Carol and the Chains of Time
One of my favorite stories is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
In it, Jacob Marley appears to Ebenezer Scrooge wrapped in chains of his own making — forged from a lifetime spent focusing on things that ultimately didn’t matter.
At one point, Marley cries out:
“Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!”
That line always stops me.
Time is precious to all of us — but that doesn’t mean we spend it in precious ways.
Scrooge eventually declares:
“I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been.”
And everything changes.
Not because he gained more time.
But because he chose to use it differently.
For Such a Time as This
In the Bible, Esther was placed in a position of influence as queen over Persia. When her people faced destruction, she hesitated to act — approaching the king uninvited could mean death.
Her father sent back a message that has echoed through time:
“Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Time isn’t just about duration.
It’s about placement.
You are where you are for a reason.
Your relationships.
Your opportunities.
Your challenges.
None of it is random.
As Elder Neal A. Maxwell once taught, the same God who set the star of Bethlehem in motion millennia before Christ’s birth has given at least equal attention to the placement of each of us in our own “human orbits.”
You are in orbit right now — positioned in ways that allow your light to warm someone else.
The question is:
Will you use the time you’ve been given?
Good, Better, Best
Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught that not everything good deserves our time.
Some things are good.
Some are better.
And some are best.
The challenge isn’t eliminating bad things.
It’s prioritizing what is best.
He once said:
“I have never known of a man who looked back on his working life and said, ‘I just didn’t spend enough time with my job.’”
That’s perspective.
Anchoring Quote
“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.”
That regret doesn’t come from lacking time.
It comes from misusing it.
Reflection
Where is your time going right now?
If you tracked your day honestly — would it reflect what you value most?
Are you investing your 86,400 seconds in:
Relationships?
Growth?
Service?
Faith?
Meaningful work?
Or mostly in distraction?
Time is your greatest currency.
And how you spend it determines what you take with you.
Today’s Daily Challenge
Take a quick accounting of your time today.
Track it.
Just for one day.
Notice where it goes.
Then choose one adjustment — just one — that moves your time from “good” to “better” or from “better” to “best.”
Look up a little more.
Put the phone down a little sooner.
Have one more meaningful conversation.
Serve one person intentionally.
Because life is fragile.
Death is inevitable.
And the only moment guaranteed is now.
Thank you for spending a few of your seconds here today.
If this helped, share it with someone who needs the reminder that time is precious — and that it’s never too late to use it differently.
More Daily Devotionals: joshdowns.com/daily-devotionals
Come Follow Me for Teens: joshdowns.com/come-follow-me-for-teens
