SENTINEL WATCH August 16, 2004 Issue

Ready for the day

By Richard Nenneman

A FRIEND, who is real estate developer, told me he gets up before dawn to make a list of the things he needs to do and people he needs to reach during the day. That list may include accountants, contractors, lawyers, city-planning officials—sometimes all of them on the same day. Then he takes his dog for a walk and comes back for breakfast. He is prepared for the day.

My father had another way of preparing for his day. I would often come downstairs very early in the morning and find him sitting alone in the living room with the Bible and a compilation of daily religious readings from various Protestant writers. He would say, "Good morning," to me, but it was clearly not the time to start a conversation with him. Although he was not a person who carried his religion on his sleeve, he was preparing for his day by reading and praying to bring God and His designs into play that day.

Later, when, as a young adult, I started to study Christian Science, the daily study of the week's Bible Lesson, consisting of passages from the Bible and from Science and Health, became my early-morning habit. This has continued throughout my life, with few exceptions—although there have been periods when I did this early preparation in the quiet of our household before I went to bed, instead of in the dawn hours.