MISTAKES

 

     I have a confession to make. Many times, when I make a mistake, I beat myself up. Obviously not physically but mentally. But don't we all do that? Research suggests that we make 50 mistakes a day. If you multiply that, times 31 for the month of March, that's 1550 mistakes we make a month. For a year that would be 18,600 mistakes we would make! So, in other words, we are not perfect! I often think about a pencil. Whoever invented the pencil decided you better put an eraser on the top of it because you might need it when you spell a word wrong. I wore out many erasers when I was a kid! How about the guy or girl who invented white out? They knew typists would need to use that when they mistyped a word and had to "white it out." The bottom line is we all make mistakes. 

     The one thing I am working in in life lately is to not beat myself up but to work on the mistakes I make and learn from them. It's what we call "life!" I heard a story once about Jerry Rice. He played Wide Receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, and he was a great player. I heard a story about him that really intrigued me. After the 49ers won the Super Bowl, the team celebrated the victory. The very next day all the players were cleaning out their lockers at their practice facility. Jerry Rice won the Most Valuable Player for that game but one player on the team noticed he was missing. He when he walked past the practice field, he noticed someone running on the field. It was Jerry Rice! He yelled to him "Jerry, what are you doing out there?" Jerry Rice walked over to him and said, "During the Super Bowl I kept running the wrong route so I wanted to fix my mistake before I left this facility!" WHAT? The player thought to himself "This great player just played the game of his life, and he wants to work on one mistake?" In sports, there are dozens of players who made mistakes that cost their teams a game, even a championship. Bill Buckner for the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series allowing a ground ball to go through his legs. Ralph Branca gave up a homerun to Bobby Thompson in 1951 that cost the Brooklyn Dodgers a chance to play in the World Series. Jackie Smith dropped a pass in the end zone that would have helped the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl 13. Or the one I hate the most...Joe Pisarcik of the New York Giants fumbling a handoff to Larry Csonka in 1978 handing the dreaded Philadelphia Eagles a victory. I hate that replay! Ugh! Or how about on the radio in 1931. Radio announcer Harry von Zell mispronounced President Herbert Hoover's name calling him "Hoobert Heever!" 

     Everyone who lives on this planet makes mistakes. So many times, we all carry around a huge eraser knowing that we certainly are not perfect. For myself all I know is that I want to do my best in everything I do. Whether I am serving chicken to people, ministering to kids with puppets or even sitting behind a laptop blogging, I want to put my best foot forward. Sure, I have dropped shakes, missed items when I was bagging food, started to use the wrong voice with a puppet or even when I'm typing I missspll wurds! (I did that on purpose 😁) There is only one person to ever walk this earth who was perfect. His name is Jesus! He has never ever made a mistake. He is the reason we have life!

     So, to conclude, I want to encourage everyone to learn from your mistakes. Don't beat yourself up! Pick yourself up and move on. Maybe you never knew this, but when you pour water on a duck, it rolls right off. Be like that duck! Let it go! Let it roll off! Learn to grow from it and keep your head held high! You are certainly not alone!

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK EVERYONE!!

     

MAKING BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

     Many of you may not know this about me. I started playing the alto saxophone when I was in 4th grade. My father played that same instrument when he was young. My parents brought that same instrument to be repaired and after pads were changed and that saxophone had "an extreme makeover", I had myself an instrument. I played the saxophone from 4th grade all the way until I was about 23 years old when I played in our church orchestra. You are talking about 14 years. I loved playing in the school band, playing in a Stage Band in Jr. High and eventually in High School I played in the marching band. That was hard! In Jr. High school our school recorded a record album my mom still has. I have very fond memories of playing in the school band, especially after our concerts. I have to say playing in the band was my greatest highlight in high school. I know my parents loved going to my concerts and I always loved it whenever I walked up to them after each concert. They were smiling and always told me, "Great job!' I also know they put up with a lot in my early years when I played in the elementary band. We were terrible but being a kid I was so proud of our band but was totally clueless how awful we sounded. It was not beautiful music, but noise...a lot of noise!

     Each year I was in our school band, I learned what it meant to make beautiful music. I had many great band teachers who put a lot of time and effort into each concert. We normally had two concerts a year. We practiced every day, and our band teachers would always go over every song making sure the trumpets were not too loud, the percussion section were in rhythm, and we were all listening to each other. He or she wanted to be sure we were ready to perform. I have to say that from when I started in 4th grade to my last concert in 12th grade, we certainly improved. Actually, I certainly hope so! The reason? We practiced and we worked hard, and we had a lot of guidance and teaching which is important! 

     This makes me think a lot about what we go through in life. We start out with no experience and everything around us is all just noise and commotion. Just like little children who have no boundaries. Although we believe our lives have structure they actually don't. We wander aimlessly. No direction. No purpose. It's just like a band with no leader. No one is conducting. No one is leading. Then as we mature, we put our life in the hands of the one and only band leader, Jesus who, just like my band teacher is making sure everything is in its proper order. It is only with Jesus can beautiful music be made in our lives! I have realized in my 61 years living on this planet that if we don't allow Jesus to have control, life without him is one big failure.   

     I thoroughly enjoy listening to music. I believe music is a gift from God. My biggest regret in life is that I didn't continue taking piano lessons. I did when I was a kid growing up in New Jersey. A lady who lived directly behind us gave piano lessons. We moved so instead of the piano, I learned how to play the saxophone. I wish I would have continued even later in life. I did take guitar lessons a few years ago, and I do hope very soon to play it for my church kids. Someone gave me a guitar and I think it's a fun instrument to play. I grew up in a household that always had music playing and I do have an ear for it. I can tell you when people sing off key! On the other side, I also know who my leader is, and I do realize he is the only one who can make beautiful music in my life and in your life. His name is Jesus. There is no second guessing that! Let him be the band teacher in your life. You will make beautiful music together. I never said it would be perfect, but life will be beautiful no matter what you face. 

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK EVERYONE!!         

WHAT DO I MISS ABOUT NEW YORK?

 

NEW YORK

    For all those curiosity seekers out there...YES! I do miss some things about NY. It was my home for 51 1/2 years of my life. When Frank Sinatra sang "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere" when he sang "New York, New York" he certainly was not kidding! Wow! Outside of New York is a different world. But I wouldn't trade this decision moving to South Carolina for the world. When I pulled out of my driveway last December 5th with the snow falling heavy and very few cars on the road, I will never forget the feeling I had when I crossed the George Washington Bridge, and I was well into New Jersey headed to Pennsylvania. I felt the stress move away from me. If you live in what they call the "Tri-State area" you know exactly what I mean! I am not saying that only New York has stress, there is stress everywhere you go. I do believe that it is magnified in New York. Just look at many athletes who play sports in New York. Some cannot handle the stress of playing there and answering to the media. Working at a big church as well as a new church plant, there was always stressful things I had to attend to. Working at Chick Fil-A in New York vs. Chick Fil-A in South Carolina is two different worlds! It's like night and day! So, with all this said, let me share with you the things I do miss about New York in no particular order!

FRIENDS

I do miss my friends from both churches I served at as well as friends I worked with and have known through the years. We had a special bond, something I will cherish always. I look forward to visiting and seeing everyone again and with today's technology, you can always glance at Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok to see what is going on in your friends lives! There is also this thing called a cell phone that you can call. You don't need to put a dime or quarter in it!

FAMILY

Although my family does not live in New York, I do miss them. We all grew up in NY and although I was the first family member who wanted to leave New York, I turned out to be the last to leave...go figure. God had more work for me to do there before my departure. My family means the world to me, and I have gotten close to them during many of my challenging times through the years. I miss them dearly!

THE FOOD

The food here in SC is not "God awful" but let me just say there is nothing like a New York Pizza or New York bagels (even though I can't eat them anymore because of my celiacs disease). I am told they are the best in the world. There is nothing like New York Italian food! I know many New Yorkers moved here to try and duplicate pizza and bagels but there is something about that "New York taste!" I'm not complaining because if you know me, you know I eat everything (except Brussel Sprouts). 

MY CHURCH

I do miss very much my church family at Lift Jesus Higher Fellowship where I served for a little over two years in Rocky Point, NY. It was a pleasure serving the church family and the kids there. I built very special friendships there and loved the comradery there. The church there has tremendous potential under the leadership of Pastor Tom Strigaro. I miss you all and I know God has big plans for you all. Stay obedient!

SPORTS RADIO

I remember in 1987 when WFAN first came on the air. I thought it was so cool that there was a radio station dedicated to talking sports. I would listen to it on my way home from work. I did get annoyed when they "talked nonsense" or subjects not related to sports. It was fun to hear people's opinions on all nine New York area teams...The Giants, Jets, Mets, Yankees, Rangers, Islanders, Knicks, Nets and Devils. In South Carolina we have no professional teams so on their station they are breaking down University of South Carolina Gamecocks football, baseball or basketball games...yawn. It is what it is. Maybe one day Columbia SC will get a pro team. Probably not unless it's a United Football League team.

ALL FOUR SEASONS & THAT FIRST SNOWFALL

It does get cold here and we do get snow...well not a lot but when we do everything shuts down. Mainly because the people here don't know how to drive in it. I always loved in New Yor that first snowfall. I got to experience it when I left New York but that first one was always special. As far as the seasons we do sort of have all four. The fall begins here in late and early December. The winter is January but at times it could get warm here in the afternoon after it was 30 degrees in the morning. I haven't experienced spring yet, but I have noticed in early March, many trees are starting to bud new leaves. There is nothing like it when you experience the fall season in New York when the leaves change color, and the foliage looks like a beautiful painting. I have heard that it has gone well over 100 degrees here in the summer. I will be ready for it...I hope!

THE PUPPET GUY IN NY

I know it will take me some time to get a name for myself and begin traveling as a child evangelist, but I do miss traveling to churches in New York as well as to Christian Schools. I did have a great reputation there and I know I was very much appreciated by churches and schools whenever I had the opportunity to travel and minister. I guess ministering there for well over 48 years helped A LOT! Once I am settled here, I know doors will be open for me. I do have one open door on April 12th to do some fun things at a Birthday party! The Puppet Guy will not die but only get stronger!

Thank you all for reading and for supporting my blog! To all my New York friends past and present, please know you are loved and missed!!