{"id":4565,"date":"2015-07-31T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=4565"},"modified":"2015-07-30T14:42:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T21:42:33","slug":"the-daffodil-principle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/the-daffodil-principle\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DAFFODIL PRINCIPLE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Psalm 126:5-6<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThose who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This week we will not have the regular hymn of the week. I have been requested to repeat this Daily-E-Votional that I originally sent out January 1, 2002. I am not sure where the original message came from, but I hope it will be a blessing to you.<\/p>\n

THE DAFFODIL PRINCIPLE . . .\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. “I will come next Tuesday,” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.<\/p>\n

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there.\u00a0 When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!”\u00a0 My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”<\/p>\n

“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her. “I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car.”<\/p>\n

“How far will we have to drive?”\u00a0\u00a0 “Just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive.\u00a0 I’m used to this.” After several minutes, I had to ask, “Where are we going?\u00a0 This isn’t the way to the garage!” “We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled, “by way of the daffodils.”<\/p>\n

“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “please turn around.”\u00a0 “It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.” After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that read, “Daffodil Garden.”<\/p>\n

We got out of the car and each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns-great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.\u00a0 There were five acres of flowers.<\/p>\n

“But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn. It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property.\u00a0 That’s her home.” Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.\u00a0 We walked up to the house.<\/p>\n

On the patio, we saw a poster.\u00a0 “Answers to the Questions I Know You are Asking” was the headline.\u00a0 The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman.\u00a0 Two hands, two feet, and a very little brain.” The third answer was,\u00a0 “Began in 1958.”<\/p>\n

There it was, The Daffodil Principle<\/em>. For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.\u00a0 I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun-one bulb at a time-to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.<\/p>\n

Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world.\u00a0 This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.<\/p>\n

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time-often just one baby-step at a time-and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation
\nof time.<\/p>\n

When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.<\/p>\n

“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn.\u00a0 “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years?Just think what I might have been able\u00a0 to achieve!”<\/p>\n

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way.\u00a0 “Start tomorrow,” she said. It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays.\u00a0 The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, “How can I put this to use today?”<\/p>\n

– Author Unknown<\/p>\n

It really does not take great intellect or strength, it is just planting the bulbs that God gives us, and keep on planting them.\u00a0 I just switched over to my Daily-E-Votional file and was amazed that since September 15, 2000, I have sent out 431 E-Votionals.\u00a0 Let’s see – – – – 50,000 minus 431, that leaves me a lot of planting left to do.<\/p>\n

NOTE: I WROTE THE ABOVE SUMMARY PARAGRAPH\u00a0IN 2002. SINCE THEN I HAVE SENT OUT 3,380 MORE. I STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE I REACH THE 50,000 MARK!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!<\/p>\n

– – – Pastor Cecil<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psalm 126:5-6 \u201cThose who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.\u201d This week we will not have the regular hymn of the week. I have been requested to repeat this Daily-E-Votional that I originally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}