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Every Day is Precious: Sunday morning call: spirit of love
By ROB PAYNE
For Williamson A.M.
Every Sunday morning at 8:15, our phone rings.
For many people, this would be a nuisance. Some people don't even know there is an 8:15 on the morning side of the clock. But for us, it's a tremendous blessing.
''Do the kids need a ride this morning?'' asks the voice on the other end. Sometimes it's Donna, sometimes Steve.
One of the things we miss most about not being able to get out is not being able to go to church whenever we want. Three years after diagnosis of a motor neuron disease, my wife is quadriplegic and on a ventilator at home. It is very difficult to get her out of the house.
We usually start the day with many of her medical and hygienic treatments, so getting out of the house before noon means waking her a few hours earlier than her body tells her to sleep.
So when Donna and Steve, from our Sunday school class, first asked if they could give the kids a ride to Sunday school and church, we thanked them and said yes.
We said the same thing when they called the next Sunday morning and asked again. They've been calling like this every Sunday for over a year except the one week they were out of town on vacation.
They often take the kids to lunch after church and refuse to take any money to offset the extra cost of having our kids. With our teen-age son and their teen-age son, buffets are usually the best food investments.
I'll confess that, staying at home every day, the days seem to run together. I'm ashamed to say that I have heard David Letterman say, ''Well, it's Thursday night, let's open the CBS mail bag,'' and it has prompted me to think, ''It's Thursday again already?''
It was especially bad over the summer when the kids were out of school. Our daughter Darcy is an early riser, so we are always awake and usually well into our day. But I try to keep the house quiet while Marcy sleeps and there were a couple of Sundays this summer when the phone rang and I said, ''Who could be calling this early?''
In many ways, it is God calling.
That phone call reminds us that it is Sunday, our Sabbath, and we should keep God's fourth commandment. It reminds us that we should raise our children in the ways of God. It is yet another reminder of the love of God in the people all around us.
If you know a family in need, see if anyone wants a ride to church. It may just give you both a lift.
Please join us Monday, Oct. 20, 2003 at Mulligans for Marcy, a golf and dinner fund-raiser for Marcy's care. Go to www.EveryDayIsPrecious.com for more information. Every Day Is Precious is a column to remind us to treat everyone we see today as if it could be the last time we see them. It is written by Rob Payne, whose wife, Marcy, was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in August 2000. Now 40 years old, she has gone from winning 5 and 10K races to being quadriplegic and on a ventilator at home. For more ways to help others, to find more about Marcy, or to receive email updates on her condition, visit www.EveryDayIsPrecious.com. Readers may contribute to her care by sending donations to Every Day Is Precious, 2051 Harvington Drive, Franklin, TN 37069. If you have helped someone without being asked, or know of someone who has, share it with others. Send to ro
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