For most of my years, my mornings have begun before my alarm goes off. And almost every one of those mornings, Dad’s words for success would ring clear as if he was right there.
“The true key to doing well is putting your feet firmly on the floor before your alarm goes off every morning.”
Those were words he shared during the relatively few times that I worked for him in the highway construction business. We needed to be away from the house before dark and on the job by daybreak. And ready to last the day — often until the sun went down.
Through the years, as I reach to turn off the alarm that hasn’t sounded, I wonder why this life of work was so valued — so prized — by my dad. My father never had a grand view of who he was. He was just Joe. Mr. Joe to many of his workers. Eventually Papa Joe to young people — including my sons and my granddaughter. He just put his feet firmly on the floor every morning and did what he could do. But he was a giant and a saint and an encourager. A man who others wanted to be around and to have around when things needed to be done.
And I’m convinced he was who he was because he believed a simple truth: We should take full advantage of every day that God gives us.
And that belief is how we change the world. No grand schemes. No crowd-funding. No hype. Feet on the floor. Showing up. Doing what we can do. Making full use of God’s day.
Things have changed as I’ve become older. Now, instead of waking up just moments before my alarm sounds, it’s often an hour. I don’t know if Dad’s legacy has left me convinced that I need more time to do what I can do or if it’s just the normal nocturnal churnings of an aging body. But lately, I’ve been eager to get my feet firmly on the floor. I’ve been given another day.