forget

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We Forget How Much We Enjoy Things

This week I noted that you can forget how much you enjoy something when you haven’t experienced it for a while.

We forget how much we enjoy things

It can happen in all areas of our lives. For instance, when I was growing up my mother often made a lemon cake-top pudding for dessert. She would make it every couple of months so the memory of the taste and texture was engrained in my mind. 

As an adult though, years and years went by without me having that lemon pudding. I kind of forgot about it. 

But somehow my wife, Lily, found that old recipe of my mom’s and decided to try it. 

Unbelievable! – that’s all I can say. Everything about that pudding was amazing from the way the soft, fluffy cake emerged from the pale yellow semi-thick sauce to the lemony taste that can’t be replicated in any other dish. 

I truly forgot just how good it was. … Sorry, the recipe is an old family secret now. 

But the other day I had an experience much like that. I went golfing.

I’ve golfed a lot over the years. Many years ago I would golf three, sometimes four times a week. But my golfing has tapered off over the years for many reasons.

One reason is that it takes up a lot of your day, and my days seem to be fuller, busier than they used to be. I’ve also lost some of my golfing partners to other things, and my interests have shifted. I’ve done far more mountain biking over the last ten years than golf. 

So on vacation I booked a tee time for Lily and I. It took me three weeks to do it and I’m not sure why. The thought of golfing sparked some interest but I guess not enough to pick up the phone, search for a deal and book a time. 

Finally I got around to it, and you know what? I had forgotten just how much I love taking out that driver and giving my golf ball a good smack. 

I get excited standing over a twenty foot putt and stare down that hole, willing my ball to go in.

I love standing on an elevated tee box and looking down the fairway at the contoured mowing, the trees on either side, and the lush green gleaming in the distance. 

I’ve played one other time this year, but for some reason this round brought back how much I enjoy the game of golf. 

I didn’t score all that well – what golfer is ever satisfied with his or her score?- but I hit the ball well. 

That feeling of hitting the ball in the sweet spot of the club face and then watching that ball sail through the air towards the target – mmmm … just like that lip-smacking lemon cake-top pudding when it crosses your teeth and hits those taste buds.

I’m going to feast on that enjoyment and savour every moment of it as I look forward to my next game in a couple of days with my son. 

Maybe I will score better too!

Here’s the thing: I’ve noticed that in life we can get completely focused on what we are experiencing, especially the trials and difficulties, like what many of us may be experiencing now. All our effort and focus is on what we can do to alleviate, or eliminate the trouble. We forget we have a God who is all powerful. During these days, reach out to God and remember just how good He is in the midst of the rough waters in life. Enjoy Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What aspect of God do you need reminding of right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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If It’s Out Of Sight, It’s Out Of My Mind

From time to time I will repost an article that I’ve written in the past. Today’s post is from April of 2016.

There is a saying “out of sight, out of mind” and it is particularly true with me. If something is out of my sight, there’s a good chance I will forget about it. 

Case in point: I’m not a great guitarist, but I like to play my guitar a bit. I used to keep it in its case, but I would never see it so I never thought of playing it. 

Eventually I got a stand so my guitar now sits in our family room in plain sight, creating a much greater chance that I’ll pick it up and strum a little.  

I need to do that with a lot of things because if I don’t see them there’s a good chance I will forget about them. 

Maybe that’s why I have so many papers on my desk. I’m afraid that if I put those papers somewhere, like in a filing cabinet or file folder, I will forget about them and not get at the work they represent.

Lily doesn’t really like my “out of sight, out of mind” system for getting things done. For her it creates clutter. 

The other day there was a new piece of clutter: I received my renewal for our car licence plates. I don’t need to renew for a couple of months, and since I don’t like giving the government my money earlier than I have to, the way I operate means the renewal form will be on our kitchen table for some time.

Now maybe right about now you are sympathizing with Lily, but here’s the flip side …

A week ago I was getting low on Bisoprolol – it’s a beta blocker, and one of the pills I take for my heart. So it’s kind of important that I don’t run out of the stuff.

What I do when I get low is I put the bottle on the kitchen table to remind me to call the pharmacy for more. I can’t just call in at any time, however, because my insurance company, who pays part of the cost, doesn’t want me to start stockpiling the little pink pills. I have to wait until I’m down to 4 or 5 pills. 

Since I load my pill dispenser every Saturday for the next week, I have to have that bottle on the kitchen table for a few days. 

So there the bottle sat, prominently displayed. … The problem was that we were having company and so Lily moved the bottle.  

She moved it out of sight which meant it was out of mind for me. I never thought of it until Saturday rolled around and I was filling up my dispenser. 

Not only could I not find my Bisoprolol bottle, I had forgotten I needed to order more! 

So Saturday morning I was scurrying around trying to find my pills and then trying to get my order in a.s.a.p. so I didn’t miss a day.

We’ll be keeping those bottles on the table from now on.

Here’s the thing: If you want to be consistent in spending time with God, keep your materials (Bible, devotional book, journal) in plain sight, ready to go for when you meet with God. Being able to see them will remind you that you have an appointment to keep with the Lord.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you do to ensure you keep your time with God each day? Leave your comment below.

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I Have An Idea For The Next Ten Minutes

I have an idea that I’m going to test out over the next little while. It’s partly out of necessity.

This time of year is a busy one for me, just like it is for many others. With all the things I’ve got to do, it’s easy to forget some things, put some things off until they are urgent, and work away at the thing or things that have to be accomplished next.

The problem is the “forget” and “put off” columns keep getting longer!

My idea is to take all the things that are on the to-do list and spend ten minutes on them each day.

That’s right, just ten minutes.

For me, I spend the greatest amount of time in the day on what is next. But at some point everything on my to-do list will become a “next” activity.

That’s when I’ll be in real trouble.

So in the mean time, I’ll spend just ten minutes a day on those other-than-next-thing items, just to make a little progress on them.

They say the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, so that’s my idea … I’m just considering a very small bite.

We don’t have much use for ten minutes in our day. Ten minutes has become much like “give me a minute”; it’s just a pushback to give us more time.

We look for bigger blocks of time to get things done. The problem is I don’t have the big blocks of time to give to anything other than the “next” thing.

We have done away with the penny and there is talk about doing away with the nickel as well. These are small denominations of currency that we don’t really use much any more.

Well, we also don’t use ten minutes for much any more. … When was the last time you were in a ten minute meeting?

When was the last time you just waited ten minutes to get into your appointment?

The only thing that is ten minutes these days is how long it takes for my chicken wing order. When I call up for wings on Saturday night, they always say, “They’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

Why I want to focus on ten minutes is because if I spend even ten minutes on something, at the end of my day I’m going to feel like I made progress, like I got something done on my list.

The long and short of it is, I’m going to feel better; I’m not going to feel the same pressure on my shoulders.

So how it will work is this: I will give ten minutes to as many things on my list as I can each day.

I may use my ten minutes on a to-do item as a break between my work on the “next” thing. I might even stack those ten minutes up and work consecutively on them at the end of my day.

… We’ll see how this plan works out.

Here’s the thing: All the things you have going on in your life will crowd out other things. You get to the point where you say, “I don’t have the time for that.” You might say you don’t have time for God. But you do have ten minutes somewhere … and that’s a great place to start. Give Him ten minutes if that’s all you have, but be consistent. See if your time with God will become a “next” kind of thing for you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you doing to make progress on your to-do list? Leave your comments below.

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Embarrassment Can Last Forever

I’m sure everyone, at some point, has wanted to kick themselves for something they did or said.  For many of us, this happens rather frequently … too frequently for my liking.

prayer meeitng

I remember entering a Sunday School class when I was in my teens and making a snide remark about the teacher, thinking he wasn’t there yet … only to hear the teacher respond. At that moment, I wanted to take my words back.

As I recall, I didn’t remain in the class for the whole lesson that Sunday.

Then there was the time I was with a bunch of friends on a bus and I saw a man burning leaves on his front lawn. I yelled some comment out to the man which, in the moment, I thought was quite witty.

But all my friends thought it was lame – I mean really lame! I was pretty embarrassed at that moment, and every once in a while, even 40 years later, I still feel like kicking myself for making that comment.

The times we stick our foot in our mouth – or do something so dumb that the actors of “Dumb and Dumber 2” would be embarrassed for us – stay with us and its hard to forget them.

But the worst are the times we say or do things that hurt someone else. Those are the worst because it’s about more than just being mortified or humiliated; you’ve caused someone pain as a result.

By the time you’re in your 50’s, you’d think those days would be over. When the person is a loved one, like a daughter, you’d think this couldn’t happen.

But it did happen with me the other day. I was in a meeting … a prayer meeting. Four of us had grouped together and shared some personal things we wanted prayer for.

I was just about to pray for my daughter Karlie – in fact, the first few words had come out of my mouth – when my phone started to ring.

I know, you’re supposed to turn your phone off in the movies, services and prayer meetings. Well I hadn’t, and my ringer is a funky piano tune.

I panicked and went for my phone, quickly swiping my finger across the screen and answering it.

Of course being in a prayer meeting I couldn’t talk loudly, so I quietly said, “Hang on; I’m in a meeting,” as I moved to an exit.

That’s right, I left praying for my daughter to answer a phone call!

I was kicking myself all the way to the exit. And I’ve been kicking myself ever since!

How could someone do that? How could I do that? What message did I send my daughter in that moment?

I know this is one of those moments that I will cringe about every time I think of it … for years! You can’t take your actions back; you can’t undo what’s been done.

All I could do is say, “I’m sorry, Karlie. I panicked and did the wrong thing. Will you forgive me?”

Here’s the thing:  When we sin, that memory can linger with us and Satan can use it against us to discourage us, to make us too embarrassed to go to God with it. But the best thing, the only thing we should do, is confess our sin to God and move on from there. You can’t take it back. You might not even be able to forget it, but it doesn’t have to keep you from restoring your relationship with God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s one of your most embarrassing moments and what did you do about it?  Leave your comment below.