my family

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I’m Messy; Deal With It!

I’ll admit it:  I’m kind of a messy guy.  It’s never hard to tell where I’ve sat at a table for a meal.  There are usually more than a few crumbs that escape my plate and leave clear evidence.  However, I’ve never seen crumbs form the word “Paul” so one could argue that someone else was sitting in that spot.

I’ve been messy as long as I can remember, and it may even be a genetic trait.  My dad was a notorious spiller.  I could share many-a-story of his spectacular spills – stories our family still gets a good chuckle over years later.  All I have to do is mention the word “marinara” and a smile appears on the face of everyone in my family.

My son has a good chance of proving the messy gene theory because, when we eat at the same table, sometimes it’s hard to determine who sat in what spot.  But my wife, Lily, says I’m messy because I don’t eat properly.

Somehow, in all my years, I never learned to eat right.  If you ask me, this is a major slam against my mother who, after all, was the one who taught me how to eat in the first place.  But the curious thing is, it also incriminates Lily because she’s the one who taught our son to eat … and apparently he hasn’t learned to eat properly either!

Lily says the problem is simply that I don’t have my plate close enough to me, and therefore, things spill.  I am either sitting too far away from the table or my plate needs to be closer to the edge.  In fact, the other day she actually pushed my plate closer to me … and I promptly spilled something on the far side of my plate.  If she hadn’t have moved my plate I wouldn’t have spilled.  I get the blame but I’m telling you, it was her fault.  I wanted to pick up the food I spilled and place it on her placemat, but I restrained myself.

And, by the way, placemats are overrated, especially for messy guys like me.  A hard, smooth surface is much easier to clean and to quickly hide the evidence (one quick swipe, if you know what I mean) than fabric where the crumbs get stuck and remain for the CSI team (Lily) to investigate.

It really doesn’t matter if I’m spilling something on my shirt (and becoming more like my dad every day), or if I leave a ring of crumbs around my plate when I eat, that‘s who I am.  I’m messy.  If I’m going to be eating at your house, you have to be prepared for that, or reconsider having me over.

Here’s the thing:  We like to change people, but the reality is we can’t.  We can get quite frustrated with people who don’t want to place their faith in God.  We can try to change them, but it won’t work.  We can just walk away and not have anything to do with them, or, we can just accept them as they are and allow God to work in them.  Who knows?  God might even use you to push the plate a little closer to them.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How hard is it for you to just accept people whom you want to see changed?

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We Need a Beach Day

There is something about the early morning that has a calming, hopeful effect on me.  This morning the sun is peaking through the trees and glistening off the grass and the side of the trailer next to us. The air is still, not a leaf is moving, and the birds are chirping as if to call everyone to wake up and experience this amazing scene.  Of course, I’m the only one up; everyone else is still sleeping, dreaming today will be a better day than the rain of yesterday.

At this particular moment the sky is blue, not a cloud can be seen.  It looks like it’ll be a perfect day for the beach – impossible to believe that the forecast calls for thunder showers.  From where I sit on our deck, right now I have high hopes that this will be an awesome beach day.

Aahh, the peace, the quiet, the stillness, the calm of this moment … did I say quiet? Yes, I did … but it won’t be for long.  My sister and her three boys are visiting, and when things get going here there will be lots of activity, talking, laughing, fighting for the bathroom.  We need a good day, a sunny day, a day at the beach to keep everyone happy.

In the quiet of the morning, I have a great calm and hope about what will transpire today.  I think we’ll get our beach day so that my sister and her kids didn’t drive up from rainy Mississauga only to experience a rainy Sauble Beach.

It’s perfect right now.  It’s going to be a great day … well, that is, except for the forecast of a thunderstorm.  Things can change.  I’ve seen it before:  blue sky, hot sun and then some tiny clouds appears in the distance, and slowly get bigger and closer and you can sense the rain falling far off.  A day can change quickly.  It reminds me of Elijah telling his servant to look for a cloud in the sky after three years of no rain (1 Kings 18:41-45).  It’s happened before, and it could happen today.

Here’s the thing:  We really don’t know what a day will bring our way.  It could be good or it could be bad (and I’m not just talking about weather).  But it seems to me we should try to start the day as prepared and ready as possible for whatever will come our way.  I think that means we should take time in the early part of the day to set ourselves calm and quiet.  And we can do that no better than to take time with God, read, pray, reflect, journal, just set ourselves calm and quiet in Him as we begin each day.

And what do you know? … the weather man WAS wrong … perfect beach day! … who’d a thunk it?!

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How do you get calm and quiet for the start of the day?

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An Early Birthday Present

I got an early birthday present this year.  I was going to be away on my birthday, so my son thought it best to give me my present early – either that, or he wanted to get it out of his trunk to free up some space.  So what was it, you ask? … It was a new golf bag.  But not just any golf bag – it was a Taylormade, Toronto Maple Leaf golf bag!

I know some of you are thinking, “But the Leafs play hockey, not golf.”  And some of you are thinking, “That makes sense:  the Leafs are the best golfers because they get an early start each year.”  I’m not sure if my Maple Leaf golf bag means I’ve jinxed the Leafs to miss the playoffs for another 3 years or not, but I’m willing to take the chance.  The bag is pretty sweet.  Way to go, Mike – great present!

I also received another early present and this one reminded me of the presents I used to buy my Mom when I was a teenager.  When it came to buying presents for her, I always looked for things that she might be able to use … you know, necessity kind of things, like household items.

I’m not sure how many times I bought her drinking glasses, but it was more than twice.  Our juice glasses were so small you barely got a good taste of the orange juice in them.  I calculated that if I bought bigger glasses that would mean more juice.  My mother applied another formula that the bigger the glass, the larger the gap between the juice and the top of the glass.

I thought I was getting her great presents, things she’d really like.  She was always appreciative, but now that I think about it, they weren’t really presents.  Those glasses were more like necessities, items you’d go out and buy yourself because you didn’t want your teenage son drinking out of the carton any more (like that stopped me).

Those memories came back to me because my other early birthday present was tools for our trailer. It was great to get the tools, but I would have purchased them as necessities.  Why waste a good present on something I need?  And that’s when it dawned on me:  those are the kind of presents I used to give my Mom!

You know, I wonder sometimes if we do this with God, as well. We come to church to worship. We sing songs about Him, and listen (intently) to the preacher tell us how we can know, love, and serve God better.  And we think we are giving God a great present.  “I’m worshipping You, God.  Isn’t that great?  Aren’t you pleased with my present, God?”

However, worshipping God is one of those necessity kind of things.  The Bible says that if we don’t praise Him, the rocks will!  When we worship God, whether it’s by praying, serving, singing, reading or listening, we are just doing what we ought to do.  It’s a necessity.  We should never think we are giving God something He doesn’t require from us.

That doesn’t mean God isn’t pleased when we do worship Him.  He is always appreciative when we give Him glory … just like I really was pleased with the tools I got as an early birthday present.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: In what ways do you give God worship?  Leave your comment below.

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Pizza

Recently my wife Lily experimented with making pizza in a more healthy way for me.  She used pita bread instead of dough (and I just found out now, turkey instead of ham!).  I like ham and pineapple pizza so she made an individual sized pizza for me and then got creative with the one she made for herself.  She was pretty thrilled with the combo of ingredients she put on hers and offered to let me try it.

Now, there’s something you need to know about me and that is, I don’t really like sampling other people’s food.  I eat what I ask for or what I order when I’m at a restaurant because that’s what I feel like eating. I always say to Lily, “If I wanted some of what you are eating I would have ordered it.” There may also be an “I don’t want to have to give you any of mine” attitude in there too.

Lil was pretty proud of the pizza she made for herself and really wanted me to try it … like somehow I’d be completely taken by this new concoction and wouldn’t even want my ham and pineapple any more – fat chance that’s going to happen! So I gave her my standard line when she asked me to try it:  “Lil, I like my pizza; I don’t want to try yours.” This time she put on the pressure: “Please try it; it’s really good; I think you’ll like it.”  “No”, I said, as I took a big bite into my pizza and savoured the mixture of sweet and tangy in my mouth. But she wasn’t finished and kept asking me to try hers.

Usually I don’t give in.  But this time it seemed very important to her for me to try it, so I took a bite. I don’t know what was on her pizza (you’ll have to ask her) but it was no Hawaiian grade pizza, that’s for sure. She asked, “What do you think? Do you like it?” She also threw in an “Isn’t it great” just to help me with my answer. I thought for a moment and said, “It tastes like you would really like it.”  At that moment she remembered whom she was asking to try her food. She simply smiled, shook her head, end of conversation.

God seeks to get us to try new things. It might be a new ministry to serve in, or a new way to connect with him like through journaling. It could be to take a leap of faith, or maybe to seek help for a problem. Whatever it is, God wants to take us from our comfort zone into something better.  However, often we’re stuck in what we like and are comfortable with, and we don’t take God up on his offer. Or, we don’t give the new idea enough of a try to get to like it.  We should be more open to God leading us and not so stuck in our ways, because, unlike pizza that is a personal preference, God is always going to lead us into something great.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

(Disclaimer: in no way am I saying Lil’s pizza is better than mine.)

How has God pushed the boundaries of your comfort zone? Leave a comment below.

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Birthday Cake

April 26, 2012

When I became a parent, life became dominated by doing things for my kids. At first they needed help with everything.  I remember the day before Karlie was born, we decided to go to the store. We just grabbed our coats and went out the door. The day after she came home from the hospital we decided to go out.  But first she needed to be fed.  Then she needed to be changed.  We had to pack a bag for her (just to go to the store). When we were finally ready to leave, I didn’t feel like going to the store any more.

In time, our kids became more independent.  I remember Mike, at one and half years old, telling Lily, who was trying to get him dressed, “I do it myself.”  But as they grew they still needed lots of assistance with things like tying shoes, homework, and driving them places.  And when they got older, the assistance they needed just became more expensive (car insurance, trips, university costs).

The other day however, I had an experience that seemed to turn the tables to them helping me.  Lily was turning 50 and I decided to make a cake for Lily.  Having a birthday cake on her birthday has always been a big thing for her.  Usually I buy one, but this was her 50th – a special birthday – and I knew it would mean a lot to her if I made her birthday cake.  The only trouble with that was, I’ve only made about two other cakes in my life.  I knew making the cake would not be too hard as the instructions are on the cake mix package.  But the icing, I didn’t have a clue what to do for that!  Well, a quick text to my daughter got me some help. She not only confirmed what flavour of cake to make, but she told me the kind of icing to make and she texted, “I’ll email you an easy recipe.”

That gave me a funny feeling.  It wasn’t me helping my daughter, it was my daughter helping me.  It was actually a pretty nice feeling.  She’s an adult now, and she’s looking out for her dad, doing things for him.  I kind of like that feeling; I look forward to more of these types of experiences.

The whole experience reminds me of how God longs to change our relationship.  Some of us spend years doing everything for ourselves and everyone else. But God wants to come alongside us and help us.  We are so used to helping ourselves, that we sometimes resist God’s help.  But having His help is a blessing.  And when we come to realize this truth, we will begin to appreciate His help.  We may even begin to seek His help more and more. You will find that God wants to help in the decisions you make, the problems you face, and the thoughts that race through your mind. He wants to direct your life.  You can resist and keep doing it yourself or you can receive the blessing He offers and let Him help.  The greatest thing we can do, is allow God to help us through life. Begin today to take Him up on His offer to help . . . with that career decision, with the purchase you are contemplating, or the life path you are considering.  We will experience the blessing when we seek Him for things we have always done ourselves.

Until next time!

Pastor Paul