Meet the Parents – That’ll leave a Mark!

Tonight was a time of delightful conversation, great food (Hard Eight), joyous fellowship, and a wonderful time of having fun at Calvin’s expense – some of my favorite fun. Calvin has a new friend and I can honestly say this is a wonderful and beautiful young lady, and even more important, a sister in the Lord.

Now, I can’t imagine what she was expecting, but she now is starting to see where Calvin gets some of his … quarks. Yeah, let’s just call them that. Lisa and her have a plethora of respected authors they share. She hadn’t heard of mine (Sailhammer, Childers, Burke, etc.) but I didn’t hold that against her, most don’t know them.

Almost three hours of sharing history, family stories, interests, humorous anecdotes of our first born, and prayer. Oh, and an explanation of Peg Leg Pete … because everybody should know about Peg Leg. She did get a bit reactive when she tried to interrupt my interruptions to call me out on the interruptions I started first. I just kept talking and wouldn’t let her interrupt. It’s the way I roll.

So, why should you, the readers, even care about this whole event? I believe every person would be blessed by getting to know her. Over and above her impact on my son’s life as a friend, she was passionate about the Lord and we could all be blessed by having more of that around us.

This is not about impressions (written on that before) but about impact. This lady has impacted Calvin’s life, and by inertia, she has thus impacted my life. And now that I have met her personally, she has left a mark on my life.

There a few pericope in the narratives of Jesus life that share about Him getting with someone, or several someones, for a meal or a time to fellowship – one that pops to mind is Zaccheaus. What were the conversations? What did they talk about? What was said that impacted Z’s life so deep? Zaccheaus life was changed forever because of just one meal and all that the time included.

Two fold challenge …

When we spend time with Jesus, what kind of mark does He leave on you? Are you more loving, more burdened for those who need His message of hope?

And when people spend time with you, what kind of mark do you leave? Tonight was my last night at Hyatt. I was told by a wonderful Muslim coworker how appreciative she was as the first priest (pastor) that she could talk with and that cared for her. I have several coworkers that I hope their lives are better because of how I lived for Him.

When this glowing friend of Calvin met the parents (Lisa and I), I pray she left better and challenged to be closer to God because of our time together..

If nothing else, she got a free meal and lots of stories on Calvin.

Make a difference – leave a mark.

Final thought – quote from movie Meet the Parents..

I will be watching you and if I find that you are trying to corrupt my first born child, I will bring you down, baby. I will bring you down to Chinatown.