Going to prayer again, I found a simple plan that will help me be more generous over the coming year: GIVE ONE DAY (G.O.D.) a month. Visualize Jesus speaking: “Truly I say to you, as you did it to the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt 25:40, RSV).
God grants me days one at a time. Ultimately, God is in control. I, on the other hand, control nothing but the choices I make each day. My days are organized by the family calendar. But I thought I could do the G.O.D. thing for the next 12 months.
I just needed a place to start. If something is on my calendar, I usually get it done. Appointments, carpools, family or work obligations — it all goes on the calendar. If I don’t write it on the calendar, I don’t do it.
This being September, I am planning my family’s school-year calendar. I can predict the rhythms of the next several months. So I’m adding a new item each month: “G.O.D.” God may guide me to do bigger things eventually, but for now I’m starting small.
Paraphrasing Blessed Theresa of Calcutta, we can “do ordinary things with extraordinary love.” Writing those ordinary things in a box on the calendar motivates.
September: Send all the money our budget will allow to Catholic Charities for hurricane relief. My bill-payer husband is crunching the numbers. While he does that, I can start a monthly saving effort. I’ll begin by saving what I earn in coupons and deposit bottles or cans. Plus I’ll start collecting gift certificates, $5 at a time, from my local pharmacy. It’s a national chain with stores in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Seems I’m always in that store anyway so this would add up in a few months!
October: I’ve been waiting ten years to have a yard sale. Time’s up! We’ll donate the proceeds to hurricane relief.
November: This Thanksgiving we’ll be visiting out-of-town family. I can easily donate the cash equivalent of an at-home turkey dinner to hurricane relief.
December: Make my own Christmas cards on our home computer, and send what I would have spent on cards for hurricane relief. Surely we can participate in gift drives to help those in need.
January: Talk to school and church officials about sponsoring a summer outreach program with our high school youth traveling to areas in need of restoration. Offer to recruit others and participate in Habitat for Humanity or something similar.
February: Send valentines and letters of support to those still homeless and enclose the gift certificates that I am collecting.
March: Celebrate my birthday this month by giving blood at the Red Cross. Get a bunch of friends to “celebrate” with me.
April: In Lent, there are all sorts of fasting and almsgiving opportunities, even if I just give up drive-thru coffee stops, and donate the proceeds to hurricane relief.
May: Find out where I can send new and used books and Bibles — or host a book-and-Bible drive — to help rebuild school libraries and churches.
June: Set up an eBay account or take out an ad to sell off my used musical instruments and my old record collections, and donate the proceeds to hurricane relief.
July: If possible, during summer vacation, visit the southern states and bring aid — see January’s calendar note. (OK, this might take more than one day that month.)
August: Collect my cookie jar full of my monthly savings from coupons and bottle deposits. Send it for hurricane relief.
Finally, give thanks to God every day! I still have a wall in a house on which to hang a calendar! May its days be open to God’s priorities and inspirations — especially to G.O.D.!
©2005 Patricia W. Gohn
Pat Gohn has been married to Bob for 23 years and has three children. Known to her friends as “majoring in carpooling and minoring in theology,” she is currently pursuing a master's in Theology. She lives in Massachusetts and can be reached at [email protected]. Her monthly column “Ordinary Time” appears at www.catholicmom.com.
