Once when I was talking with Al Sanders on one of his “Vox Pop” radio broadcasts, he quoted something from Ashleigh Brilliant that I often say: “My life is a performance for which I was never given any chance to rehearse.”* Then he asked, Why do you say that?”

I told him this: “Suddenly life has happened. I didn’t have any chance to prepare for the four tragedies that hit our family over a period of nine years. But I believe that when I talk to you now, I have credentials because I’ve been in the pits. I’ve been through the tragedies, but now I’ve got a lot of joy. I want to inject that joy and humor and hope into the people who are listening.”

Every day is so precious, we have no time to waste. Some days may bring pain, but we always have a choice between misery and joy. The secret is to live one day at a time and to make the right choices as you go along. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a wise thinker, and one of the best pieces of advice he ever gave the world was this:

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.

Л few weeks ago I was chatting on the phone with Dr. WaIter Martin about some problems I was having getting books sent to Canada where I was to speak at a Bible conference. I had been in his Bible class for years, and he had written I he introduction to my first book, Where Does a Mother Go to Resign? Over the years his tapes have also been such an encouragement to me. He gave me some pointers about how to solve the book-shipment problem, and then, since I knew he had diabetes, I shared with him that I, too, had been diagnosed as having diabetes. When I joked about our probably never having to end up in a rest home, he laughed and said, “That being the case, perhaps I should sell my interest in a rest home hack East.” We laughed some more, and I told him about this very book, which I was in the process of writing.

Ten days after our phone conversation, Dr. Walter Martin was singing praises around the throne of God. A sudden, unexplained heart attack and he was gone! Life is so fragile for all of us. How important to make decisions that count for eternity! Eternity is waiting for all of us, but if we can accept the pain that comes in this life and choose to react positively, we can avoid misery. We always have the option to choose JOY!

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