What If. Some Thoughts About Time Change

It's that time again. The time when we return to standard time from daylight savings time. Which means it's the time of year when there's a lot of complaining going on!


I'm not sure who first decided that moving our clocks forward or backward every six months was a good idea. I seem to remember that Benjamin Franklin has been credited with the idea. Of course, when Ben mentioned daylight savings time, it was in the middle of a satirical essay, which may means even he didn't think it was such a good idea. The idea became standard practice sometime in the late 1970s, and we've been doing it ever since. I think the idea back in the 1970s was to give children more daylight at the bus stop in the morning. But that really makes no since, because if you adjust time to have more daylight in the morning, it naturally follows that there will be less daylight in the evening. So what happens to children at the bus stop then? Especially those children who are still on a bus at 5pm!


When I went to my last Weight Watcher meeting, it was still daylight when I left the meeting at 6pm. Yesterday was a rude awakening. Not only was it already dark when I left, but because it was a cloudy evening, it was really dark! 


This idea of taking an hour from one end of the day and putting it on the other end of the day really accomplishes nothing, in my humble opinion. There are still only twenty-four hours! Well, it does accomplish something. It messes with my body clock. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one! And the older I get, the more that is true. Since we had the "fall back" over the weekend, yesterday, and today - and probably for the rest of the week - I'm trying to adjust. Not really sure what time it is. A little out of sorts. Thinking it's mid-morning when it's really only eight o'clock. Things like that. Of course, I'll adjust. We all will. We're flexible like that. But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who will be complaining about it.

Adjustments are a part of the journey of life. Now we're adjusting to the time change. Tomorrow may be something different. But no matter what adjustments there are to make, we have the option to complain, or to make the adjustment and move forward.


How about this. Instead of complaining, what if we were just grateful. Instead of complaining that the time change messes with my body clock, be thankful for another day of life. Instead of complaining that it's too hot or too cold, be thankful that we have the ability to feel. Instead of complaining when rainy days cause our joints to ache a little more, be thankful that we are able to move around. That we aren't in a wheel chair. Or worse yet, bed ridden.


Instead of so much complaining, why don't we stop and consider all the reasons we have to be thankful. And instead of whining to our family or our friends or our coworkers, why not share the reasons you have to be thankful today.


It's a choice. Which will you choose?


"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
(1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV)