Proverbs 2:10-12 tells us why our days are important and how we should spend them. It reads: “For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will fill you with joy. Wise planning will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.”
On this day, in 1954, I learned I was chosen to give a speech at my eighth grade graduation. On this day in 1965, I earned my Masters Degree with my parents ang grandmother in attendance to congratulate me. Later that year, as I was teaching on Long Island, I met the man I would marry two years later–not in June, but on a snowy, icy December 28, 1968. On this day in 1980, I was mother to a four-month old son, after waiting through eleven years of marriage to bear a son. On this day, in 2005, I saw this son, standing at the altar, awaiting his lovely bride walk down the aisle toward him. He had tears in his eyes and joy in his heart. On this day, in 2081, I was awaiting the birth of our second-born, our beautiful daughter. On this day, in 2014, I learned that my memoir of Grandma Whitaker won first prize in a wiring competition. On this day in 2007, I retired (or so I thought) from teaching in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On this day, in 2023, I pondered a new phase of my life–selling our home and moving to a senior living facility. And on this day in 2025, as I write this, my two lovely grandaughters are still asleep in that same cramped apartment, staying at Grandma’s.
Now to the wisdom part. My first wise choice, although I had little to do with it, was being born into a family of unconditional love. When I was six years old, the fourth child of my parents was born. I was big sister to Ellen, Dorothy, and Loren James, Jr. He was born in 1946 on June 7th. I remember my overwhelmed mother sent Ellen and me to a friend’s house, out of her hair, so to speak, when LJ was about to be born. It was an adventure. I vaguely remember riding on a train, I think to somewhere near New York City. I wisely learned trust and that I could indeed be the big sister which was my parents’ expectation for me.
After all, I was already learning to read, I was playing the piano pretty well for a five-year-old who had been taking lessons for two years already to help strengthen my eyes, and I was soon to have two operations to straighten those eyes. I was soon to discover that school was a great place to be and my world expanded to include friends, more books to read, teachers who cared for and about me, and music which has been a huge part of my life. I also learned to cooperate with my four siblings, to care about what they were doing, to be mom’s helper, and to admire my dad, no matter what he was doing.
Through my years, I learned that God loves me, and because of His love for me, I had a sense of purpose and a goal–to give my best to Him because He gave His Son, Jesus, to bless my life in very special ways. My commitment as a Christian was in the spring of 1953 and has been the wisest of all decisions made. My parents, grandparents, Sunday School teachers, pastors, youth directors, college decisions and church memberships in many locations have intersected with “chance encounters” of God’s direction. In my writing, I call these miraculous events and encounters Godincidences. It is only wise to count them as events, meetings, thoughts, answers to prayer, and guidance as more than chance or luck or what the world would say, happenings. God plans our steps and directs our pathways, and wisdom shows us just that.
When I consider all the June 18ths, I think of the play Our Town, when Emily (it just happens to be the name of our second granddaughter) decides to come back to life on “Just an ordinary” day. To God, every day is a special day in our lives for very different reasons. Either He has something new to show us, or some reflection to celebrate, or someone He wants us to meet, or someplace he wants us to be to bless someone else or to express an idea He wants someone to hear, or just because every day is indeed special.
What does God want you to be, so, say, write, accomplish, or remember about this September 18th? It would be wise to ask Him in prayer to make this day special for someone and for Him. That’s the truly wise decision we make each day.
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