Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
THE CHRONICLE
May 30, 2004
Vol. 49, No. 22

Putting First Things First
In the years before World War II, affluent Norfolk, Virginia families would shut down their homes and move to summer places on the oceanfront in Virginia Beach. Fathers who worked in downtown Norfolk could board a rickety trolley at the end of each day and ride the fourteen miles to join their wives and children. This life was not always as glitzy as it sounds, particularly during the Depression years. One friend who spent her childhood summers this way gives a vivid description of how she feared the chickens and rooster that the family kept behind the chimney in a corner of their screened porch. Despite such inconveniences, my friend remembers these summers as the times that really defined her family and their relationships. Dinner with cousins and friends was often a long, slow affair, with even the children
lingering past sunset. Her father was far more available and attentive than
at other times. She remembers how she loved falling asleep to the sounds of
her parents and their friends talking while they played cards on the porch by
candlelight.

Not many of us can spend the summer in an old family retreat. Some of us—
including retired folks, they remind me—will not even get vacations. Some of us live in households quite different from those of an earlier generation too, and we may not have access to blood-relatives. Many of us have jobs that do not really become less demanding in the summer. Nonetheless, during these months when the days last longer, any opportunity to change our daily routine bears potential blessings.

How would we use our time if it were possible to really put first things first? A changed summer schedule may tell us. Might we read more? Spend more time cooking and talking with loved ones, and less time watching TV? Pray more consistently? Finally begin to read the Bible in some methodical way? Spend more time playing the endless games of “Chutes & Ladders” the child next door demands? Worship more—or less? Spend less time in the car?

Like the Jewish Sabbath, intended not just to contrast with but also to influence what goes on during the rest of the week, our summers can exert a powerful influence. Make good and careful choices about the things you (and your children) invest in this summer. You may learn to live more fully as the person God calls you to be.

~Andrew MacBeth

(Return to Top)