My life is one day at a time
Sometimes I look back over my life and try to remember what we call the “good old days.” From my birth to now, I have lived 27,500 days. That is a lot of days.
Sometimes I think it would be interesting to remember every one of those days.
I can’t even remember all of my birthdays. I know I had them because I’m still alive today. Sometimes I think it would be interesting to remember my very first birthday. I wonder what my parents got me for that first birthday.
Some days stand out more than others do. For example, I remember very clearly the day The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I got married. I’ll never forget that day. Other days stand out in my memory.
Recently I’ve been thinking it is a waste of time to focus on the past. Nothing in the past can be changed or improved. If I went back and tried to correct one mistake I made, I’d probably make two other mistakes in the process. Not worth it.
At my age, I am concentrating on living one day at a time. Yesterday’s gone, and tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. So my focus is on today. I’m going to live today as though it was the last day of my life. Whenever I get up, I never know if it will be my best day or my worst.
With The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, it is a different story. Her great obsession is planning her days. She plans a whole year, including all the holidays in the coming year. Of course, she carefully schedules doctor visits. If she didn’t do that, I probably would never see my doctor again.
When I get up in the morning, I really don’t know what will happen during the day. I try to think about what I need to do that day and keep it to a minimum.
Now that I’m retired, I don’t have to get up and go to some committee meeting. I can crawl out of bed, go to my office, and work in my pajamas. I never thought retirement would be so much fun.
I need to be careful because if I decide to go to Walmart, I need to change out of my pajamas into my workday clothes. There was a time, I will not explain, when I forgot to do that. Actually, when I went, I fit in with everybody else.
This past Monday I needed to go to the post office and pay my annual fees. I had no other appointment, so I just drove to the post office, went in, and paid my fees.
As I walked out, I heard a horn honking. I didn’t know where it was, but as I walked toward my truck, I realized it was my truck making all that noise, and the headlights were also blinking. Something was wrong with my truck.
I got to my truck, got in, put the key in, and the horn stopped honking, and the headlights stopped blinking. I had no idea what was going on. Sitting behind the wheel, I sighed a very deep sigh, and then started the engine. It actually started right up.
I put it in reverse, and it just drifted backward very slowly. I pressed the brake, then put it in gear, pressed the pedal, and nothing happened; it kept drifting backward. I finally stopped and tried putting it in reverse, and it just drifted backward. I couldn’t get it to go forward, and I couldn’t stop it from drifting backward.
I had no idea what was wrong with my truck.
I tried calling AAA, but my phone wasn’t working very well. I tried to call The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, but my phone still was not working. I walked back into the post office. I was able to call my daughter and tell her what was going on, and asked her to call her mother for me.
I then called my mechanic, told him my problem, and he said he would come over to meet me right away. We were only a couple of miles apart, so it didn’t take long.
I was standing outside my truck waiting for him, and finally he came.
He asked what was wrong, and I tried to explain; then he got in my truck, turned the engine on, and everything worked. He could drive it forward and backward. Nothing seemed to be wrong. Everything worked fine.
He told me to take it to his garage where he worked, and they would check it out for me.
I wasn’t sure I could make it to the garage, but I finally did. They had my truck overnight, and when I went back the next day, they told me they found absolutely nothing wrong with it.
That sure made me look like an idiot there in the garage.
Of all the days in my life I would like to see repeated, this surely isn’t one of the
A verse of scripture came to mind. “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
I can’t change yesterday, and I cannot predict what tomorrow will bring. I need to focus on today and trust God to help make today a day to remember.