Monday, April 23, 2012

Doin' the Dailies


Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loadeth us with benefits, even the God
of our salvation.
Psalm 68:19

Meeting Grace Rice McMullen was such an honor. She was the oldest daughter of Dr. John R. Rice a wonderful former pastor and evangelist. I believe she had four younger sisters, all stellar women of faith and service. Grace had spoken all across our country at women's events. I was rather new to Texas and to the Baptist church we had joined after our move. I had been asked to plan a Mother-Daughter event that particular Spring. Another friend who knew Grace well told me that she thought she could get Grace to come and speak. Grace lived with her husband a little north of the Dallas area. I couldn't see how that could happen but it did.

Having never met Grace and not having talked with her, I must admit that I didn't know quite what to expect. I did know on top of everything else in her life, she was in a life and death battle with cancer and the prospects at that time did not appear to be encouraging. On that special day, Grace walked down the aisle of the church auditorium just prior to the start of the program and I recognized her from pictures. She came right to me and introduced herself as if I were the honored one and she a mere spectator. Grace had a way of making me feel comfortable right away and like we had been friends for a long time. You know, I've noticed that about people I consider great. They minimize themselves and treat others like royalty. Anyway, from that very day began a deep friendship between Grace and me even though that friendship would be shorter in duration than I would have liked. She and I had a love for women in common and had worked with women, she longer than me. We had an immediate spiritual connection that happens when kindred spirits meet.

I was invited to her home and over the next several weeks, was a frequent visitor there. We planned to write a book together  on women's work that would be published perhaps by Zondervan. Her husband said to me privately that he doubted if there would be enough time for us to complete the book. I told him that if it gave Grace a sense of purpose, I wanted to help give her that for as long as possible. Our event had been held in May. Grace called me in August. She had just returned from her oncologist who told her that her cancer had invaded her liver and gave her only a few months to live. I continued my visits until her husband called me one late Fall day to tell me that Grace had gone to Heaven. Two funerals were held...one in Texas and the other in Tennessee. I was asked to play the organ for the Texas funeral, a last gift I could give Grace. 

I was so enriched by Grace and all of her spiritual input. I never viewed the Word of God the same again, even to this day from that first day of meeting Grace.   It was such a privilege of having her as my friend for ever so brief a time. There is one statement Grace made to me during one of my last visits with her, on a day when she was suffering more than usual. She said, “You know Glendarae, life is just so daily.” Okay, yes, daily...that made sense. It wasn't until my drive home that much of what she was saying in that one statement began to sink in.

Life IS very daily and because it is, we can find ourselves taking each day for granted. In fact, we can mess it up, ruin it, not appreciate it, lazy our way through it, get nothing accomplished during it, and thus, we can turn into good-for-nothings when it comes to valuing each 24 hour period of time. Grace and I spoke of this further at another visit. We agreed that women waste too much time. They claim to be busy, busy, busy but many get so little accomplished because for one thing, they don't organize their lives. Some simply waste more time than they realize, thus accomplishing little. It's easy for most of us to ignore “doin' the dailies.”

From our conversation, I selected for our women's ministry that year the theme, “Do the Dailies.” I made up a little date book, copied it to give to the ladies in our ministry to help them establish a daily schedule or routine in their lives. I know life is busy these days for wives, mom's and the working woman who often combines all three positions but the dailies can be done with efficiency and with less effort than usual. Organizing responsibilities through the days of our week will do so much to ease daily burdens. We have modern appliances that make cleaning, laundry and cooking so much more convenient than 50 years ago and yet we complain of having so little time to get things done.  Our lives can be orderly, well planned and efficient. When that happens, we are happier people and much easier to get along with.

May I make some suggestions, for in any of this, there must be a personal desire/decision to accomplish what you plan for your week. The little book I made for our ladies then was organized into three sections to be addressed each day and are as follows:

Daily with God...

Determine to have that time in the Word and prayer on a daily basis. I'm not suggesting a time. That must be your own decision. Decide that on Sunday, you will be in church and Sunday school and nothing will keep you from it unless it is an emergency of some kind. If you are a part of any spiritual activity...choir, ladies Bible study, teaching a Sunday school class...make that as much a part of your schedule as doing the washing or cooking a meal. Faithfulness in this area will encourage faithfulness to your other weekday responsibilities. Also be a person of praise every day without fail. Those times can get us through some difficult days.
So will I sing praise unto thy name forever,
that I may daily perform my vows.
Psalm 61:8

And he (Jesus) said to them all, If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Luke 9:23

Daily in the House...

List those things you must do weekly for the upkeep of your house....washing, ironing, dusting, dishes, cleaning bathrooms, etc. Parcel those things out over the days of the week so that a bunch of them don't have to be done in one day. Some of those things will be very daily but the big major things can be spread out over the week. Friends have teased me for years as they know what I do every Monday....wash clothes. That's the day for that. That's when my Mother washed clothes and I still do the same on Monday. When I had little ones, I washed more than once each week but Monday was always one of those days. I don't even have to think about it anymore as it comes automatically.

Daily in Relationships...

Daily time must be made with children and husband. At least one family sit down meal helps with this and it can be done..I don't care what people say...it can be done. Our family had sit down suppers and rarely did we miss that tradition. If children have too many outside activities to be involved with the family, then a part of their dailies should be re-evaluated and curbed. If we are honest, most over burdened children participating in everything from hopscotch tournaments to river rafting are involved primarily to feed parental egos.  Families are splintered because everyone is allowed to go their own direction. No wonder children are having nervous breakdowns. There's no down time for them because of all the activities that keep them away from the family home.

I wasn't as organized as I should have been, but after meeting Grace, I worked very hard at making my life more structured and organized. I knew I had to work harder at doing the dailies, the ordinaries of living to get more accomplished. I've learned to cut most phone calls short and to say no to all of the extra's people want me to do. We can get caught up in those things because we want people to pity us for being so busy and yet we want them to elevate us to grand positions of spiritual sainthood. Sorry, we are called to do the dailies. Even if you work outside the home, you can still do the dailies with planning. I have seen working moms often accomplish more than stay-at-home-moms because they live a more structured life.
In 1 Corinthians, I love the one little phrase the apostle Paul uses. He said at the end of 15:31, “I die daily.” There's a lot you and I need to die to...things of this world, always wanting our own way, keeping up with the Jone's, Smith's or Rockefellers and any things that can so easily frazzle us. How are your dailies doing? Despite the routine of life, I have to agree with my friend Grace...”Live is just so daily.” Enjoy the dailies of life and count them a privilege as we serve our families as well as outsiders, but mostly our Lord. 

I love our opening verse that our Lord daily loads us with benefits. I pray He will never consider doing away with that “daily” I have become so used to enjoying. I pray He will keep those daily loads of benefits coming my way. May we be faithful in our dailies as well.

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Father...Help me to be faithful to those daily things of life that benefit me, my family, others and for Your kingdom as well. May I realize that each “daily” You give me is a day I am to use to it's fullest, regarding another day of life a privilege. Thank You, Father for loading me up every day with Your blessings. I love you....Amen.






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