New Year - New Investments
It could be said that we can get more of pretty much anything, except time. Time is one of the most precious commodities that we have because none of us actually know how much we have left. Think of the amount of time spent on investments of money. Should we buy this or that house, car, vacation, etc.? Should be move our retirement to a more aggressive investment? If so, which stocks? Should we buy a new refrigerator? If so, which one should we get? Think about how much time we spend on things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Quite a bit.
The average American spends a lot of time investing in television (approx. 153 minutes per day), social media (approx. 143 minutes per day), and video games (approx. 24 minutes per day)*. That adds up to 320 minutes a day (5 hours and 20 minutes) or 116,800 minutes per year (about 1,946 hours). Also, as dad’s, think of the investment we make in athletics for our children. It is estimated that travel baseball for children would be about nine hours per week minimum (including three hour long practices at least one day per week). This would not count traveling to tournaments and the 12-hour days that often accompany them.
It has been said, “where your treasure is, your heart will be also” (Jesus of Nazareth – circa 31 AD). As we think about the last paragraph and the investment of time, it could be said that this investment is also an investment of our treasure. Our children see us investing lots of time in these activities. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with leisure. God Himself rested. The question would be the quantity of investment.
How about this investment? The Rosary (approx. 18 minutes per day), the Divine Mercy Chaplet (approx. seven minutes per day), daily Mass (approx. 30 minutes per day), Adoration (approx. 60 minutes per day), blessing your food (approx. one minute per day), reading the Bible (approx. 10 minutes per day). At this point, we have 126 minutes per day (2 hours and 6 minutes). As a Dad, we could invest in many, many aspects of our faith in one day and spend less time than one night of baseball practice for a 9-year-old or one night of games for your 4-year-old playing soccer.
Imagine if our wives saw us spending even 10 minutes per day praying for our marriage. Or, if children saw their fathers investing up to five hours per day in our, or even better, their eternal salvation. It may be worth the investment of at least considering how you could invest your time in something that is going to have a big, big return on investment.
Yes to Action. There are many practical things we can do to increase our investment in the eternal. For some, they may already be doing all the things listed above (i.e., Mass, Rosary). If so, keep it up! For others, maybe you need to start small. Try praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3:00 pm (or any other time of the day). It is an investment of seven minutes. Still too much, try simply praying one Our Father or one Hail Mary with your family.
Other simple things you could do would be to listen to child friendly podcasts about the saints (e.g., the Saints or Saints Alive). These entertaining podcasts can strike up some good conversation with your children. Husbands, invite your wife to a date and Adoration. It will do wonders for your marriage. Single men, time in Adoration will strengthen you for your state in life. Facetime with Jesus will always be beneficial!
*all data information from Statista (2025)