Featured Are Hobbies and Acceptable way for Christians to Spend their Money and Time on?

Running rabbit dogs ( beagles) is my hobby. It keeps me a 66 year old man in shape by trying to keep up to see if they are doing it right or not. I do this in the summer months and then rabbit hunt with them in the winter. I could be sitting in the house watching Pop Eye and stuffing my gut and get a big as a elephant.

 

Art is my hobby. I think it's good for me and can teach patient, discipline, and hard work.

A hobby I'd like to do, just because it's fun, is cosplaying. But it's pretty expensive, and I don't have the skills to make my own costumes. I do have one cosplay, I may get another one within the next year. But I have far more important things to spend money on first.

Other hobbies I've had included training my dogs on agility (obstacle course) at home, among other things such as Frisbee and just adding more tricks to the ones they already knew.




Mostly as a teenager, when dogs were my tunnel-vision passion. I can still impress people with the tricks they know, but I don't spend much time teaching new ones anymore and I think the agility equipment is either misplaced or broken now.
Now, some people actually are good enough at stuff like that to have competitions. I never advanced that far, and I don't think my dogs would have won titles in any areas. But it was and is something cool to show off to the average pet owner. I can turn some heads at the park having my dog jump over my arms and legs. More than that, dogs have a very real need for bonding and companionship, and that's a great way to fill that need.

Like anything, hobbies can become an idol. That's when they are a problem. God didn't make us to sit around and not enjoy the world He created.

 

Your question is a good one. How we spend the time we have is a question that needs answering, especially with a new year upon us.

To my shame, I've wasted not hours weeks or years, but decades. This tweet from RC Sproul woke me: "To waste time is to spend it on that which has little or no value." Brief article here: http://www.ligonier.org/blog/productivity-redeeming-your-time/

If there is value in a hobby, like keeping fit, it is worth some time. Assessing the value of what we spend time on is the tricky part. . .

We have minutes and hours as we have coins and bills. We should spend them on things of value. Funny that I guard my money more than my time. How foolish of me! I can make more money, but I can't make more time.

 

There's a time for everything; hobbies expand us.
Each interest we have brings new people into our lives that we may otherwise never meet.
Hobbies can be one way to meet new people and expand our circle of witness.
When your interests coincide with another's you have something in common which gives you an opening to share other things about yourself.

God created you with certain abilities and various interests that make you different fro everyone else. Why would you deny yourself the pleasure of expanding yourself by using what God invested you with?

• I read and collect books, and have recently begun to learn how to build and repair them.
• I collect wheaty pennies (their price has inflated more than 500 percent over my lifetime - a 1 cent penny is now worth 5 cents) :tongue3:
• I tend garden
• I've begun to exercise at a gym.

But there's another side: hobbies can enrich us or enslave us.

I've know people that collect things to the point of obsession.
I know people that spend countless hours defending our world against space aliens while gaming.
Hobbies can distract us from doing things that need to be done.

I say pray and see how God will work in your life.
Be sensitive to his leading and live a life worthy of your calling - everyone's different
Don't conform to the world's expectations of you, transform yourself into God's image of you.

Rob

 

My hobby is collecting gospel tracts and distributing them. I have dozens of tracts and have given out many, but still abut 5,000 in my tract library.

 

Oh I see what you mean. IN that event my hobbies are as follows.

1. I love Trek!!! That is the original series. I also love Twilight Zone and other SCI-FI.
2. I love nature/animals. Love to take hikes, explore the woods, go to the zoo, look at Rabbits and other creatures.
3. I love to exercise and go to the gym

Look at my Rabbit album.

http://s36.photobucket.com/?postlogin=true

 

I love dogs!!!!

 

I have seen it many times. :laugh:

 

Our three year old golden is obsessed with frisbee (I am one-winged for a while, so it gets interesting throwing it with my weak-side arm. :laugh. Learned it when her adult teeth were set. Pretty good at it.

Her latest one is bouncing her tennis ball off of the patio door glass. Comical to watch, but this will be ended quickly. She started that one yesterday.

 

Time is like gravity. It's pulls and tugs on you constantly. Time is a curse. While in this cursed world there's nothing wrong with a break from the daily grind.

 

Farming and gardening are my favorite hobbies!!

 

I "enjoy" golf although I really stink at it. I also enjoy playing tennis which I do much better with but it has required a few surgeries. I also fancy myself an amateur investor and enjoy the challenge of making successful and rewarding investments. As I approach retirement I would like to improve my golf game in order to have a physical hobby in my senior years.

I also hope to have the opportunity to continue using my gift of teaching throughout most of my life.

BTW

I really appreciate the perspective on hobbies shared by Deacon.

 

Hobbies are fine, IMO, as long as they are not immoral or sinful (Obviously!) nor distract you from the Word of God or the pursuit of holiness. Several New Testament admonitions are helpful in this:

1Co 10:31 HCSB - Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God's glory.

Col 3:17 HCSB - And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Phl 4:8 HCSB - Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable -- if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise -- dwell on these things.​

Sometimes we just need a break from the daily grind, and having something that you enjoy doing can help you to glorify God in your life, simply by relaxing and relieving stress.

Personally I have 3 main hobbies:
Art - painting and drawing, which I hope one day will be more than just a hobby.
Paintball
Video Games - I am not sure that all my video games are in line with the admonitions listed above, so I am playing less and less. I'm still figuring this out myself.

 

My hobby is costly----just like Ann's horses!!! This past April I was switching out a chisel plow on the tractor----when I pulled the last hitch pen from the plow---the plow rocked forward onto my hand---and pinched off the tips of my pinky and ring finger:tonofbricks:

A trip to Birmingham's UAB hospital and the use of a plastic surgeon makes for expensive farming!!!:godisgood::type:

 

This might provide a balance. I do not subscribe to everything he says...but this is thought provoking
;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSl_SCQkaYg

 

If your hobby interferes with something that should have a higher priority and is not getting done because to much time is spent on the hobby then it is not a good thing. If it is used for the purpose of obtaining rest and refreshment then it is beneficial.


If the hobby is ungodly and not pleasing to the Lord then it is never beneficial.

 

RevMitchell

You motor on over to Alabama just southeast of Birmingham----and you see me on the tractor bushhogging or cultivating in the garden-----leave me alone----I'm writing a sermon in my mind while I'm on that tractor!!!:saint::saint: