from Rachel: Sermon Notes

“Some of us live like we have no control over our time and our schedules.”

Psalm 90 – “Written by Moses – prince – shepherd – spokesperson/prophet – leader of people”

Our time is “limited”, therefore we need to “limit” what we do with our time

“‘From everlasting to everlasting, You are God’ (90:26)”

“‘Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom’ (90:12)”

Ways to number our days…

1) Clarify your “values – Write down five or six most important items in a list.”

2) Set “goals.”

3) “Schedule” accordingly – “Goals can get crowded out by all the little daily demands.”

• “Goals” should drive your “schedule”.
• “Goals” get “priority” seating on the calendar.

4) Demand “margin – time, more than you need to breathe. Just as God commanded a Sabbath”

• Learn to say “‘no'”. – “No” for now, but not “forever”

“Margin of sitting with absolutely nothing to do can be the best way to get inspiration and ideas”

Simple suggestions:

1. Begin your day with “God”
2. Consider the “Sabbath”
3. Set a limit on “evening activities”
4. Have an “elderly friend”

Honey –

This is just one of so many sermon notes that you left behind. It sometimes amazed me as to how many of these you hung on to. In fact, Jan and I have had to throw out hundreds of pages of these that were completely blank, because every time you cleaned the sanctuary between services each Sunday, you hung onto each of these pages that had been left behind. I don’t know if you meant to use the blank pages as scratch paper (honestly, even Daniel didn’t – and still doesn’t – go through paper for his artistic expressions as fast as you were collecting paper) or kindling. If it makes you feel better, we did ensure that the excess papers were properly bagged and set out with the recycling, rather than just ordinary garbage.

To be sure, these notes aren’t really the same as a letter from you, as most of it is filling in blanks provided on the paper, but the fact of the matter is that you did more than just filling in those blanks. You took notes on what you heard, albeit to greater or lesser extents from week to week. This particular example was somewhat typical, and chosen for now because… well, we now have a number for your days. I won’t say you managed all of these suggestions, or that you managed to reduce the time spent playing video games or increase the time on household chores (and by the end, we hadn’t room for cooking), but you did consider what you needed to do. Which ought to count for something.

When we were going through your closet, Jan and I found this box:

And I’m sure you already know, but I’m mentioning it here because there was no antique doll in this box. No, you considered these more important than that:

You kept your Sunday School newsletters every week, going back as far as when you were eight years old, judging from the dates on each of them. Now, I don’t know when the last time was that you looked at them was, but I have to confess, since you didn’t take notes back in those days, there wasn’t that much in there that I would have considered worth keeping, so… we got rid of them.

For what it’s worth, the main thing in those ‘PIX’ newsletters was the weekly release of a comic strip version of the Bible – I remember, because our church used those same newsletters back in the day. The thing is, those pages have since completed going through the Bible, and have been assembled as such. We even have a copy of the book:

So it isn’t as if everything was completely gotten rid of, honey. I hope you’re okay with that.

But there you are – quite literally. And I’ll keep showing these notes that you took as I can determine when and where they best fit. After all, your time was limited, and there are only so many notes you managed to take… but that you kept so many at least allows me to share your thoughts with the world for a good long time before reaching that ‘Pale Blue Dot’ moment, where I come to that last message from you and there will be no others left.

Until then, thank you for the memories, and the instructions.

And Lord, help me to use my time wisely as well. Oh, and give her my best when You can, would You? Thank you.