Have you ever said: I just wish I had a little more time, or If only there were a few more hours in the day? In the hustle and bustle of our fast-paced and ever hectic lives, it can be hard to fit everything in. It might seem that all we need is more time.

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:14). God divided the day from the night and designed the sun, moon and stars; He set them on their course and created time as we know it.

After completing the creation of the physical universe, God said that everything He had made was not just good, but “very good” (verse 31). This includes time. No matter who we are—young or old, rich or poor—we are all allotted the same amount of this most precious, God-given commodity—time. Do we need more time? Or do we need to learn to make better use of our 24-hour daily allowance?

As teens, you need to develop this character of proper time management now. Yes, character! How you use your time each day is a matter of character. The habits in time stewardship you develop now as a teenager will affect the rest of your life. The effect can be positive or negative; the choice is yours.

Paul said to the Ephesians: “See then that ye walk circumspectly [strictly or carefully], not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). This word redeeming literally means to “buy up.” As teenagers, it can be easy to waste time, but you need to be careful to redeem the time because these days we are living in now, right before the return of Christ, are evil. That shows that we are wise, rather than like those who foolishly waste their time.

Are you redeeming the time?

Satan has been cast down to this Earth (Revelation 12:12), and we are living in the time of his greatest wrath ever. Satan knows he has a short time left, and you can be sure he is managing his time. These days are evil. We must be wise and redeem the time.

Accept this challenge: Build and nurture the habit of redeeming the time. There are many areas of our lives where we can implement this principle, but let’s consider just one, illustrated by the poem “The Stranger”:

From my earliest memory, the stranger had his place in our family. Mom taught me to love the Word of God and Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller.

He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries and comedies were his daily conversations.

He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each day.

He was like a friend to the whole family. He took my dad, my brother and me to our first Major League Baseball game.

The stranger was a constant talker, but no one seemed to mind. We were even told to keep quiet, so no one would miss a word.

My dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity was not allowed in our house—not from us, our friends or other adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used some words that burned my ears and made my parents squirm.

My parents were God-fearing individuals that never smoked and rarely had a drink. But the stranger exposed us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic drinks often. He even made cigarettes look appealing.

He talked freely about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive and generally embarrassing.

I know that my early concepts of the man/woman relationship were influenced by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was never asked to leave.

Many years have passed, and I am all grown up now. But if I walked into my parents’ home today, there he’d be, waiting for someone to listen to him.

His name? We always just called him tv!

Frivolous use of your time in front of the “one-eyed monster” will not help you later in life. It will not contribute to your character growth and personality development. We can allow wrong attitudes, moods, emotions and horrible examples right into our living rooms and into our minds. We could be allowing an enraged, cast-down Satan right into our homes. After all, he is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). Watching television can be a colossal waste of time! Recognize your personal tendency to waste time in this area and resolve to change today. It’s not that you should never watch television, but you should be selective. Be careful and wise as you decide how much time you will spend watching it.

According to Nielson Co., the average American watches more than four hours of tv each day. That is 28 hours a week—or two months of nonstop tv-watching per year. In a 65-year life, that person would have spent nine years glued to the tube. That is a lot of time! That is nine years that could have been redeemed for use in more productive ways: the pursuit of education, personality growth, development of talents—the list could go on and on. Time squandered cannot be regained.

Your approach to personal time management must transcend a peacetime awareness. We have to go on the offensive because the days are evil. These are not normal times. These are not normal conditions, so you as teens must conduct yourselves differently. Recognize that you, as well as your parents, are in a spiritual war. These days call for you to have a warlike, resolute mind—willing to go the distance, willing to sacrifice, willing to order your days, and willing to establish your precious hours and minutes in a well-calculated and audacious attack. Your enemy is always present and ever watchful for ways to waste your time, continually laying a minefield of time wasters in front of you.

Accept the challenge to revolutionize your tv-watching habits. Set clear goals and limits on yourself and then achieve those goals. Replace those time-wasting old habits with productive new ones. Replace time wasted in front of the tv with time spent in deeper study or in robust, face-to-face fellowship with the family or in developing your talents.

Recognize that these days are evil—and start redeeming the time today.