A Hectic Time

December’s such a hectic time. There is so much to do.

There are church, family, friends; work, school, community; concerts, dinners, weddings;

Shopping, programs, gifts; Scouts, cards, letters, cleaning; cooking, visiting, budgets, taxes;

Schedules, bills, snow, travel; noise, obligations—

Obligations.

But the day will come, sooner than we think, when family’s gone, friends pass on, work ends, school’s through—

When invitations thin out, pressures ease; no children home to buy for, clean, cook, and sew for; no missionary out to pray for—

And obligations end.

Thanks, Lord, in the March, June, and September of our lives for Decembers as hectic as these. May this fevered stockpiling of memories now help warm the Decembers of our lives.

Joe J. Christensen, Associate Commissioner of Church Education for Seminaries and Institutes; second counselor in the general presidency of the Sunday School