15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:4,5 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”
Several years ago, our family hosted an exchange student in our home for a school year. When Christmas came, Susan had a get-together at our house for all the exchange students from surrounding towns. She set a beautiful buffet table with her good china and put out her best silverware—a set that our sons’ German grandmother had given her on a special occasion. (I don’t know enough about flatware to tell you what it is, but it looks like it has silver-plated handles and gold-plated tips.)
Our exchange-student guests were young ladies, each one from a different country — places like Japan and Germany, Brazil and Thailand. When Susan told them to line up for the buffet, we were amazed that none of them moved a muscle. In their murmuring to one another, I soon discerned the reason. None of them wanted to be the first to touch the good dishes.
I then realized a universal fact of human life: It doesn’t matter where in the world you come from. Your mom has taught you not to mess up the good dishes. They are to be saved for special people. They are not for you. They are for when company comes to visit.
I ran into a good friend at the grocery store the other day. She told me that, since I had last seen her, she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She told me she had completed chemotherapy and radiation, and that the doctors now believe she is in remission.
She told me she’d made a lot of changes in her life since then. When the doctor made his first diagnosis of her malignancy, the first thing she did was go home and take her best china out of its cabinet and put it in the dishwasher—so she could use it every day. She then took her best silverware out of its display box and dumped it in the kitchen drawer with her stainless.
She told me her cancer diagnosis was a wake-up call. She realized that no matter what happens, we all only have a limited time to live on the earth—and that if she plans to do anything important, she had better get on it.
Dear mamas, the Scriptures teach us that never a day passes without trials and temptations. But life is still very much worth the living, and the best “company” that you’re ever going to have in this world is probably sitting around your table at breakfast and for Sunday dinner.
Don’t put off doing your deeds of kindness and love for a more convenient time.
Don’t wait until you have visitors to do the things that make a day special.
Each day that the Lord gives us is a special one—special enough for the “good dishes”.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad” * He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and is beginning his 25th year of being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 18) and Seth (age 15) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where we, like everyone else, are about as happy as we make up our minds to be). You should write him at extramailbox@juno.com.
