A genie appeared before me and my first wish is to control the flow of time forward and backwards and pause time. Assuming the genie will take my wish very literally what do I need to include to the full wish?

What should I ask for so I don’t kill myself by accident or end up in the middle of space?

This is the plot of a short story I published, apart from the genie. I shant tell you what happened, just in case.

You probably want to be able to resume time as well as pausing it.

Just wish for a steak knife that makes any steak it's blade touches delicious and nutritious for the holder of the knife.

--dry-run

Be sure to ask it to put you in another time stream or something. Otherwise going back and forward in time does nothing, as going back also rolls back your memory of the future and going forward is just our normal experience every day. Pausing would be bad, since you would not be able to unpause (as you are paused yourself). But even if it were paused and then resumed after something indeterminate happens, you would not have experienced that pause (nor would anything else in the universe), so it might as well not have happened.

You need to be way more precise with your wording, intent and requirements. And then the genie still screws you over, that's kinda the point of the genie figure in myths.

Ask for a box of genie’s so you can keep modifying your wish when you find the problems.

How does the genie define "steak"? Are any potential future steaks also considered steaks? What I'm getting at is, if I mishandle the blade, do I turn delicious and nutritious for myself and others who may handle the blade in the future?