AN ADAGE A DAY- ENCOURAGEMENT
Got the Tshirt?
By Carole Gilbert
We’ve all been there, done that, and maybe even gotten the T-shirt. We have also put off until tomorrow what we could’ve done today. So, with that in mind, ladies, I’m asking you, what do you wish you’d done differently?
It’s August. Summer is coming to an end. Our schedules are geared now toward that time of the year instead of summertime activities, we’re starting our routines of work or school. And I’m always on the fence about getting back in the swing of things. As that time approaches, I wonder, what am I putting off until tomorrow that I could’ve done today? Have I eaten all the summertime foods that I wanted? Have I gone to all the places that I wanted to travel to? I think where have I been, what have I done, and did I get the T-shirt?
I look back on the family trips we took while our kids were growing up. Our big thing was to get a souvenir for every destination we traveled to, usually a T-shirt.
And the places we made sure we got a T-shirt from weren’t always vacations. Sometimes it was from sports, maybe games we traveled to or from our own home team. Then, after my kids graduated, I made each of them a quilt using their T-shirts. These quilts are such fun mementos and definitely a blast from the past. I also made quilts for my husband and me.
This phrase “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt” is a way for us to express that something mentioned or thought about is something we have done before. The first part of it began in the early 19th century in America with the shirt part added in 1991, thought to be because of the T-shirt as a souvenir craze. I know we jumped on board and got T-shirts, many T-shirts! It is fun and important to get these or other souvenirs. They remind us of fond memories. But more importantly, are the things we say.
We must ask ourselves:
Have I said all that I need to say?
Have I given that child the most needed advice and encouragement?
Have I given my spouse or close friend that compliment?
Have I given my family all I need to?
Have I praised God for all He’s done and is doing?
To me, our T-shirt quilts are special. And they have many colors. Joseph, in the Bible, had a coat of many colors from his dad. His coat is not believed to be quilted but it held fond memories. And later in his life he had reason to look back when approached by his brothers to reminisce about that day he lost his coat. That was the day his brothers sold him into slavery. And when he saw them again, years later, they were asking for him to help them. Joseph had gone through so many events leading up to him being the second in command behind Pharaoh in Egypt. I wonder if he might’ve looked at his brothers and thinking about the events in his life thought, “Been there, done that.” And instead of a T-shirt thought “had the coat.” But, like we should do, he embraced the moment and took hold of what God was leading him to do in his heart.
So, as summertime fun starts to end and our other schedules begin, let’s be sure we haven’t put off until tomorrow what we could’ve done today. It’s so much better to be able to say, “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt,” than to look back and wish we had.