When
our oldest daughter got married this past summer, we were
fortunate to have
lots of family and friends come and spend that day with us. Some even got to hang around
for a while
afterwards. One of those
was Sara’s
brother Josh, his wife Jeanine and their three kids.
Soon
the question became, “What are we going to do with three little
kids for an
entire week?”, so we quickly made a list.
On the first day we took them to the splash pads. The next, we went to the pool
at Churchill
Park. Then we ran them
around on the
rocks at Roche Percee. We
took them to
the pool at the leisure centre and to several playgrounds. We even had a huge Nerf gun
battle in our
backyard. In short, we did
every fun
thing that there was to do.
Fast-forward
six months and I am sitting next to one of the boys at Christmas
supper, so I
turn to him and say, “If I came to see you in Akron, Ohio, what
fun things
could we do there?” He
says,
“Nothing!” At that point,
his mom
leaned over and whispered, “My boys think Estevan, Saskatchewan is
the most fun
place on earth. Ever since
the summer,
they have been begging us to move to there!”
Akron
is a nice place. It has a
population of
over 700 000 people. They
are surrounded
by parks. There are pro
football, baseball,
basketball and hockey teams in the area.
Cleveland and all it has to offer is just forty miles away. Name anything you would ever
want to do, and
you could find it in the Akron metroplex.
Yet, two little boys who live there think that Estevan is
the best place
in the world simply because we spent some focused time with them.
Typically,
I am as selfish as the next person.
However, for one week, I got out of my own way and the
result was
great! We had fun and we
made some memories
that will last a lifetime.
Something
special happens when you put the needs of others ahead of your
own.
The
trick is learning to do that all the time.
“Do nothing out of
selfish
ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above
yourselves,
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests
of the
others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
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