credit card

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I’m Still Paying For Dinner

Someday, when my family goes out to dinner, I won’t be paying the bill. The other night I saw a foreshadow of this, but in the end, I still had to ante up.

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My family is not quite there yet. They still depend on dad to come through at crucial times, like at the cash register or when the mobile credit card machine is brought to the table.

It was a momentous occasion – both Karlie and Mike were in town on the same day when it wasn’t a holiday or some special event. It was a last minute kind of thing so we quickly threw a plan together.

I got a couple of extra tickets to the hockey game and we decided to go out for dinner beforehand.

We only had one hitch: we had to decide where we would eat. That shouldn’t normally be a difficult decision. There are plenty of restaurants in town.

Reading everyone’s mind and coming up with the right place is not always easy in my family.

I suggested burgers … Hey, we were going to a hockey game, not the theatre, so burgers seemed to be a good fit.

My wife, however, wanted everything. She wanted a classy dinner at hamburger prices.

Well, there just isn’t that option in downtown Kingston, so we ended up settling on a trendy restaurant which catered more towards Lily’s atmosphere tastes than her desired price point.

It was good though because we were all in agreement.

However, I noticed a few things right away. It was my son who took the lead at getting us a table. It seemed to me that our waitress identified him as the leader of our group … or that he was the most eligible person at the table!

And when the menu came, it was Mike who gave his mother a few pointers regarding what was on it. And both our kids gave us a little instruction or constructive criticism on ordering food in a restaurant.

When that happened, I had a flashback to when they were children and we not only had to order for them but we had to feed them as well.

I wondered if the tables will turn completely the other way one day. Well, it’s better not to think about that too much, so, never mind.

We had a great meal. Everyone seemed to enjoy what they ordered and I noticed my kids didn’t seem to have any concern for the price of things.

When it was time for the bill, the waitress brought it to the other side of the table where my son was sitting.

Maybe it was because he was dressed a little better than I was, or maybe he just seemed to be the one in charge at our table. … Or maybe he was the most eligible one at the table and she was hoping he also had all the money.

Well, sadly for her and for me, Mike had no hesitation with passing the bill over to me.

I had this brief glimmer of hope of what could be, of what might be someday. It all lasted two, maybe three seconds before I was staring at the $100 plus bill.

Dear old dad is still good for something, I guess.

Here’s the thing: We can look very good on the outside, like we have it all together, that everything is under control, like we can take care of things. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what we look like on the outside, all that matters is what’s inside. Do you have the currency to meet God’s demands? Faith in Christ is the only currency He’ll take.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How is your currency with God? Leave your comment below.

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Make Good On Your Promise

In my last blog, I wrote about how saying “sorry” doesn’t make good on your promise to deal with the hurt one’s received. (Check out that blog here!)

credit card reward points

I just got a new credit card for the precise purpose of collecting reward points. This will eventually enable me to purchase a new cell phone on points.

The reason the credit card company was trying to communicate how terribly sorry they were is because they declined my card on my third purchase … MY THIRD PURCHASE!

My card is through Rogers Bank, and why wouldn’t they have a bank? They own television stations, a cable company, an internet service, and a cell phone provider. They need a bank.

My first purchase on the card was for $24 at Swiss Chalet for a meal with my wife and son. With my initial purchase I got 5,000 points, and that’s $50 towards a new phone.

Two days later, I followed that purchase up with one for about $100 to my auto mechanic. That’s the first time I’ve actually been slightly disappointed that my repair bill was so low.

I had anticipated a bill of around $300-$500 and in my head I was thinking cha-ching – rewards points, come to papa!

You can imagine my dismay now that my bill will be getting me less than half the points I had pre-calculated.

The very next day we had scheduled a hot water tank replacement. I specifically told Lily we would be using my new card since the purchase would be around $1000 and I would pocket about two thousand points for the purchase.

That’s when Rogers Bank ran out of money. I just started with the guys, but they weren’t expecting me to purchase something over $500, I guess.

I have a limit of $10,000 on the card – you’d think they would allow me to put that much on it … I only wanted a thousand.

Their reason for declining my card was that it was out of my regular pattern.

I replied to the guy on the phone, “Out of my regular pattern?! How can I have a pattern?! I just got the card four days ago and this is my third purchase!”

Of course, he was very sorry for the inconvenience, “and the embarrassment” I added.

I’m not sure Rogers Bank is going to make it. The guy I talked to couldn’t give me rewards points for my lost points on the declined purchase. His supervisor also didn’t have the authority to give me those rewards points.

These Rogers rewards points must really be worth a lot or they are running this bank on a shoestring.

It’s been four days since my decline, eight days since I’ve had my card. I haven’t seen any reward points yet – not the bonus points I was promised and no word from the president of Rogers as to whether they will break their piggy bank and give me some “sorry” points. I’m waiting . . . patiently.

Heres the thing: Have you promised God that you’d give Him your life? But you’ve actually kept control of some or a good portion of it for yourself? All that does is cause Him to question your sincerity. Make good on your promises and let Him lead. Don’t frustrate God’s plan by holding back and not giving Him everything you promised.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you most tempted to hold back from giving to God? Leave your comment below.

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When Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word

Sometimes saying sorry just isn’t enough. That’s true when the words used to say sorry are hollow or come without sincerity.

Sorry

It’s not hard to ascertain a person’s genuineness when saying sorry; we pick it up in their voice,  their facial expression, their posture and gestures.

When someone is truly sorry, it’s often easy to forgive them. Our heart goes out to them for we see the pain they are in. Even though they may have inflicted pain on us, we are moved to ease the pain they are in.

But when the words used to express their sorrow come out as a memorized line that they have rehearsed for a play they are starring in, well, it takes more than words to prove there is depth to the expression that lies beneath the thin wavelengths of sound coming from their mouths.

Sometimes sorry doesn’t make the mistake go away.

This week I had a credit card declined when making a purchase. That was just a little embarrassing.

So when the credit card company called to say sorry, I wanted to know they were more than just Easter chocolate words … you know, fully formed chocolate outside shell, but hollow on the inside.

The company representative on the other end of the line must have said he was very sorry about a half a dozen times. But every time I heard the word, I thought to myself “Oh, that makes it all better now – NOT!”

You see, I had just received the credit card no more than four days before this incident. I got the card because it’s my latest scheme to get a new cell phone. With every dollar purchase I make with this card I get two points that I can use towards purchasing a new phone.

But even better than that, I got 5,000 points for just taking the card. It was a no-brainer for me! I slipped my old MasterCard out of my wallet and slipped the new one in. Awesome! – and we had a large purchase to make right away which would get me a lot of points.

We needed a new hot water tank so it made perfect sense to me to put this on my new Rogers MasterCard and get 2,000 points for the purchase, rather than put it on Lily’s PC MasterCard and get about the same number of points towards groceries.

What do you need food for anyway when you have a chance at reducing the price of a new phone?

Not only was having my purchase declined an embarrassment, ending up missing out on all those points that went to Lily’s grocery bill really fried me.

So I said to the guy on the other end of the phone, after his 5th or 6th “sorry for the inconvenience”, “How about you give me some reward points on my card?”

Apparently, he was only authorized to express hollow words. For a truly sorry gesture on the part of the credit card company, he would have to have his supervisor give that.

To be continued . . .

Here’s the thing: When we have sinned, we may be sorry before God, but our words better not be hollow. You see, being sorry for sin also means you have to do something about it, and that involves not continuing in your sin. Be sure that when you ask God for forgiveness you mean it, by way of ensuring you take steps not to commit that sin again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you felt when someone’s sorry words are nothing more than hollow? Leave your comment below.