COUNTRY COMMENTS

As we start a New Year I wanted to share a great story that I read this past week . . .

3,900 Saturdays

A Story by Jeff Davis

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday morning. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the fi rst few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up on my ham radio and came across an older-sounding chap with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind: he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles.” I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well, but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much.

“Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of “a thousand marbles.”

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-fi ve years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-fi ve years.

“Now then, I multiplied seventy-fi ve times fi ftytwo and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom; I’m getting to the important part.

“It took me until I was fi fty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time, I had lived through more than 2,800 Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.

“Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

“There’s nothing like watching your time here on this Earth run out to help get your priorities straight. “Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday, I have been given a little extra time. And, the one thing we can all use is a little more time.

“It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a seventy-fi ve-year-old man, clear and good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife with a kiss. “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile. “Oh, nothing special. It’s just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

Excerpted from the introduction of the Simple Truths Book Changing the Human Battery: 50 Ways to Motivate yourself by Mac Anderson

“Time is free, but IT’S PRICELESS.

You can’t own it, but you can use it.

You can’t keep it, but you can spend it.

Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.

reading, my weight and my relationship with God more manageable. I thought I would post my past New Year’s resolutions so you can see my pathway to success. Please feel free to use them yourself:

My New Year’s Resolutions on Reading:

2013: I will read a book a week. 2014: I will read a book a month. 2015: I will read a book every other month. 2016: I will read a book this year. 2017: I will fi nish the Gospel of Matthew. 2018: I will fi nish the Gospel of Mark. (It is shorter than Matthew.) 2019: I will fi nish the book of Jude. (It is shorter than Mark.) 2020: I will try to read a Bible verse.

My New Year’s Resolution on My Weight:

1999: I will get my weight down below 180. 2000: I will watch my calories until I get below

190. 2001: I will watch my calories until I get below

200. 2002: I will try to develop a realistic attitude about my weight. 2003: I will try to grow taller so my weight will be correct. 2004: I will work out five days a week. 2005: I will work out one day a week. 2006: I will try to drive past a gym at least once a week.

My New Year’s Resolution on Procrastination:

2003: On Jan. 1, I will quit procrastination. 2004: On Jan 1, I will make a plan on how I can quit procrastination. 2005: On Jan 1, I will plan to quit procrastination of Feb. 1. 2006: On Jan 1,

My New Year’s Resolution on My relationship With God:

2014: I will go on an overseas mission trip. 2015: I will attend a missions conference 2016: I will give money for someone else to go on a mission trip. 2017: I will pray for someone else to go on a mission trip. 2018: I will listen to someone tell about the mission trip they took. 2019: I will read an article about a mission trip. 2020: I will wear a Christian T-shirt. When we are young, we have high hopes and dreams of doing great and mighty things for God as well as making vast strides in our personal lives. As we get older, instead of striving for our noble dreams and lofty goals, we lower our standards and expect less and less from ourselves. We may even reduce our ideas about what God expects from us. We end up being satisfi ed with . . . mediocrity.

—CC—

And last of all my favorite story of the week . . .

Little Brandon was fascinated watching his grandmother as she cleaned her dentures. He watched carefully—his mouth wide open in wonder—as she carefully removed them, brushed and rinsed them, and then popped them back in. “Cool, Grandma!” Brandon said with enthusiasm. “Now take off your arm!”