History is full of events that tell the story of the wasted minute, putting off until tomorrow those things we should have done today. One tragic story tells of the steamship, Central America, sailing from New York to San Francisco. In mid-ocean she began to ship water and was soon in rescue. It was near midnight when the rescue ship came within hailing distance of the stricken ship. "Bring your passengers and crew aboard," she signaled. But the captain of the Central America signaled back, "Lay by until morning." Several other attempts were made to get the people off the sinking ship; each was rebuffed with the same signal: "Lay by until morning." About an hour before sunrise the rescuers noticed that the lights marking the place where the Central America lay had disappeared. When the sun rose, it was on an empty sea. The ship had sunk with all hands on board. For the Central America, morning never came.

There are some truths I would like to share with you about tomorrow. We can make light of its uncertainty. The Procrastinators of America have a slogan, "Anything worth doing is worth putting off." The truth is, however, none of us is guaranteed a tomorrow. If it comes, what it will be depends largely on what we have made of today. If we have done the things that we ought to do today, tomorrow tends to take care of itself. We need to set realistic goals and put our tasks in priority order.

When I was a child, I was given a test in which I was shown pictures and asked to draw inferences from the pictures. One that I have never forgotten was the picture of a farmer working in his field. He had suddenly been attacked by Indians and had grabbed his rifle just as one of the redskins hopped over the fence nearby. The question I was asked was which Indian should the farmer shoot first? Without hesitation I said, "the closest Indian." I have made that something of a rule for living. Take care of the things that must be done first. When we get in the habit of doing first things first, there is no end to the good that we can do.