First and foremost, pray for strength to stay busy in a biblically balanced and purposeful way. This is a mark of true wisdom, true education. As a forebear once wrote: "One of the best tests of whether a person is truly educated is what he does with his leisure time." If you pursue even one-third of my suggestions for leisure time, you will have no time left for movies, bars, substance abuse, rock music, television, and wrong friendships. You will be more committed to avoiding temptation and less inclined to pursue a total­ly selfish lifestyle. If school peers look like they're having a great time partying, don't believe it. Chances are they are desperately searching for purpose and meaning in life, but keep on living aimlessly nonetheless. Don't be jealous of them. Don't stoop to their level. Seek grace to learn also in regard to your leisure time that "godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Tim. 6:6).

Secondly, make sure your activities are neither sinful in nature nor consume the bulk of your leisure time. Scripture rejects the abuse of recreation as a vehicle to live a self-, world-, or pleasure-seeking life (cf. 1 Tim. 5:16; 2 Pet. 2:10; Prov. 21:17; 1 Jn. 2:15). Also with our leisure time we may not be "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4). Remember the warning of Solomon: "Rejoice, O young man in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment" (Eccl. 11:9-10).

Thirdly, caution in all recreational activity is in order since leisure time can easily become a time of relaxed physical and spiritual defenses. As another has written: "Carelessness is foolhardy; sin comes, like Sandburg's fog, on little cat paws but still claws vehemently at the soul." If in doubt about the validity of a certain activity, would it not be better for you to abstain from it since there are so many other better and more scriptural things to do?

Moreover, if your parents, teachers, or office-bearers frown on particular activities that you might not see too much harm in, don't waste your time rebelling. They have wise reasons for their concerns which you may not presently realize. Honor and obey them, and always remember that you have too many constructive things to do to argue over a few "gray" areas.

Fourthly, be careful not to waste your time and talents. Scripture condemns wastefulness and sloth more than one hundred times – especially in the book of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes tells us that the age of youth is vanity when spent wantonly. Instead, learn, as Paul advises, to use this world with­out abusing it (1 Cor. 7:31). Even when you must be in the world, pray for strength not to become of the world.

Fifthly, on the other hand, do not think that you always need to be "doing" something. Especially in a dating relationship, don't neglect "talk­ing time." Share your ideas and convictions. Seek to ground them in Scripture. As your relationship develops, pray for grace to also spend time praying together. The couple who prays for God's blessing upon their evening – at the commencement and/or at the con­clusion of it will normally be spared from much sin and be drawn considerably closer together than those who do not ask God's blessing.

Sixthly, as long as others' use of leisure time is not sinful, be careful not to judge critically. The use of a signifi­cant portion of leisure time will naturally be tailored to an individual's personality, character, and desires. We have observed that there are many legitimate ways to spend leisure time within the framework of Scripture. While one enjoys fishing, another reading, and a third arts and crafts, we are all called to exercise liberality in judging those activities that are not explicitly or implicitly condemned by Scripture.

Seventhly, don't make yourself so busy that you have no time for rest. Laziness is indeed a sin (Prov. 6:9-11), but Christ also encouraged His disciples to rest awhile (Mk. 6:31). Rest may assist us to meet our spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental needs with greater balance. Moderate, lawful, and restful recreation strengthens and refreshes for further labor. Solomon confessed: "There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God" (Eccl. 2:24). John Calvin confirms this by teaching that it is God's providence when a man may enjoy rest from his labor and turn his creative ability to activities that help "recreate" his energies for ensuing work. Nevertheless, seek above all that rest in Jesus Christ of which Scripture speaks: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb. 4:9).

Finally, remember that recreational activity is overdone when carried to excess so that it is no longer restorative in nature, but exhausts a person to the point of making him unfit for his duties. Jonathan Edwards states this well in his two closing paragraphs in a sermon entitled, "The Preciousness of Time." I want to close this topic with this fitting, loving admonition from the pen of Jonathan Edwards:

Improve well your time of leisure from worldly business. Many persons have a great deal of such time, and all have some. If men be but disposed to it, such time may be improved to great advantage. When we are most free from cares for the body, and business of an outward nature, a happy opportunity for the soul is afforded. Therefore spend not such opportunities unprofitably, nor in such a manner that you will not be able to give a good account thereof to God. Waste them not away wholly in unprofitable visits, or useless diversions or amusements. Diversion should be used only in subserviency to business. So much, and no more, should be used, as doth most fit the mind and body for the work of our general and particular callings.

You have need to improve every talent, advantage, and opportunity, to your utmost, while time lasts; for it will soon be said concerning you, according to the oath of the angel, in Revelations 10:5-6, "And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer." Works, II, p. 236

Dear young people, are you using your leisure time to prepare for that great Day when time shall be no longer?