Over
Q uite often after the evening meal, as my husband and I linger over the last bite of dessert (and the chil dren are deciding who washes and who dries), he asks me rather absent mindedly, “ Well, what did you do all day?” As I answer him I see that he is listening but not particularly hearing and I have the unique feeling he has turned off the audio portion of me. I jog his elbow or wink or whatever to get his attention and I begin again. His wandering mind is not due to rudeness, but possibly just due to be ing over-exposed to my routine for the day. You see, it has been just that kind of day—rather routine. This morning, after three lunches were duly sacked, one husband kissed and prayed off to work, one junior higher kissed and prayed off to school and one grammar school child kissed (three times) and prayed off to school, I began my day. The list (I still make lists after 15 years of marriage) runs like this: 1. Peed the dog (because he’s looking at me like he’s going to call the SPCA if I don’t hurry) 2. Clean up the mess in the kitchen and make beds 3. Devotions 4. Get to the stack of mail 5. Make 3 phone calls about the Cam pus Crusade dinner to be given here 6. Lunch (I get crabby if I don’t eat) 7. Wash and dry the towels (the chil- dred took baths last night — 3 towels each!) 8. Pick up Rick from school and take him to the orthodontist 9. Get dinner and answer Laurie’s 14 questions 10. Greet Dick at the door and answer, “What did you do all day?” As you can see from the list, it has been a routine day. I have been careful to give you the general outline of the day, but what was not included were the phone calls (seven before lunch), the chat with the mailman (“You get more mail . . he said), the talk with a man who left an article he thought should be featured on my radio pro gram (I will), and ending in frustra tion because of the new book Zonder- van just sent that I can’t sit down to read! Many hundreds of women (perhaps thousands) have routine days — days filled with a million details. When you add up these details and realize you will go over the same ones possibly tomorrow or the next week, you some times feel it’s all so useless. It’s about this time that we seem to look at some one else — their life, their job, their husband, their children — and sigh wistfully for their world. From our side of the fence it looks so fun, excit ing, and definitely not routine. Yet how often, if we could change places, would we be able to bear their life, keep thir pace, or fill their shoes? The grass always seems to be so much greener in somebody else’s lawn.
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“ NOBODY CAN POSSIBLY HELP ME . .
6 üp O f
How wonderful! You can shake hands with a king! His name is Jehos- haphat and the story of his life (II Chron. 20) reads like your letter. You are desperate and helpless. So was he. You don’t know where to turn. Neither did he. Satan’s blow-by-blow strategy leaves you paralyzed. Jehoshaphat had no strength, no army, no forces to op pose the “great company” boldly march ing against him. What could he do? Standing utterly and achingly helpless (as you are) what DID he do? “He set himself to seek the Lord.” He literally threw him self on God as he prayed, “ O our God . . . we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.” There you have the golden key — “ our eyes are upon Thee.” Do you see yourself in the mirror of these verses? You are overpowered by a “ great company” of temptations. They come lurking in troops. Satan is never content for you to battle with “ one at. a time, please.” There is also a “ great company” of afflictions. Your body is sick. Your mind is tormented. You stumble through confused days and you toss through sleepless nights. You live with people who are peevish and discontent. You depended on friends who have suddenly turned away. Then you have a “ great com pany” of nameless apprehensions. You are plagued with doubts and fears. No body really cares, it seems. What is the answer? Stoic endur ance? Renewed resolutions? An attempt to strangle your fears — to alter your circumstances? You have tried all of this, and the result has been deeper despair. You can never fight Satan blow by blow — NEVER! But you CAN pray Jehoshaphat’s prayer! His God is YOUR God if your faith is in Jesus Christ. You CAN plead with God on the grounds of His great power, His great promises, His great love. You CAN let Him fight
Goffee
by Joyce Landorf When I reflected on my “ routine” day, the Lord lovingly pointed out a great lesson, namely, / need a routine day. If every day were an exciting “ change-of-pace” day, I’d be worn out by the end of the week. I need a day of details to acquaint myself with my husband (ironing his white shirts), my children (had a good chat with Rick on the way to the dentist as we planned the posters for his campaign for presi dent of the junior high department of our church), and my housecleaning (tore the bookcase apart and found two articles I’d been looking for and a song I didn’t know I had). David was told, “ Be still and know that I am God.” A day of details is like that to the extent that while you do the shopping, while you do the laundry, while you chauffeur your children, you can listen with your heart as well as your mind, to that still small voice and know that He is God. In Deuteronomy 26:16 we read, “ This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes (dishes and ironing) and judgments (chauffeuring and teaching the children): Thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart and with all thy soul.” And in Haggai 2:19 . . . “ From this day will I bless you.” Every day is a fresh beginning; Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain, And spite of old sorrow and older sin- ning, And puzzles forecasted and possible pain, Take heart with the day, and begin again. S usan C oolidge from Joy and Strength, by M. W. Tileston Never again shall I complain about a “ routine” day, but I shall retain in my heart — Psalms 118:24, “ This is the day the Lord hath made (even this detail day): we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
KANDY KAYE SAYS,
JUST FOR TODAY I T R Y a thousand times or more. And still I fall the lower; And then I heard my Father say, Now TRU ST— and I'll take over!" “ . . . for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (II Chron. 20:15).
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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