I was really blessed yesterday by my dad. He’s such an awesome person. Aftercelebrating so many birthdays, I seem to have lost sight of the true meaning ofbirthdays and just celebrating it as a passing event. Yesterday, we celebratedJerry’s birthday with a traditional surprise, a cake, sang happy birthday,loved ones around, caked the birthday boy, decorated the room, wore silly hatsetc. We invited our parents to join so my dad was watching the whole thing.After we finished and cut up the cake, my dad said, “This is how the Americansociety celebrates birthdays?” in a joking but serious way. He used a Chineseword, which I was not very familiar with, but it was something like:superficial or trivial. As we were just enjoying time together and foolingaround, he kept bouncing the balloon ball Susie bought. While holding onto thecake, he was bouncing the ball, standing there and spaced out, all at the sametime. We were all laughing at him because he looked so cute. After the laughterdied down and we went to clean ourselves up, he pulled me to the side and goes,“Joan, what’s a word that starts with ‘RE’ that stands for continuously doingsomething wrong over and over again. I shrugged at him and said, ‘I don’t know….RI-diculous?” I couldn’t think of any word but didn’t know what his intentionwas for asking me so I didn’t think as hard. He said, “Okay, ‘Ridiculous works”.
We went back to Jerry’s room andhe sat down and started to speak so we all naturally just circled around him,seemed like he was going to preach a sermon, which he did. This whole time,while we thought he was spaced out, he was really preparing something to say tothe whole family, he was planning a sermon. He started off by saying if we arecelebrating someone’s birthday, we have to at least say something meaningfulabout the birthday boy and have planned something out in that way. (All ofthis, he did in a very well-mannered and nice way, I have so much to learn frommy dad!)
So he began.
“J stands for Joy to Jesus.
E stands for Excellence for Everything
R stands for Repent for Ridiculous ß (There, I realized what he was using this wordfor!)
R stands for Revival for Renewal
Y stands for Yes to Yahweh.”
He went around and made everyone speak a little about each topic. He askedeveryone to give examples of how we can apply each topic and he shared a littleabout his own personal story, though my mom was not absolutely comfortablebecause it involved her. It seemed like not everyone was ecstatic about thethings he was sharing because they were so focused on Jerry’s lottery ticketand it being about Jerry’s birthday. I, on the other hand, was so focused onwhat my father had to share. He was trying to make Jerry’s birthday ameaningful one instead of celebrating it in such a superficial manner. I feltso grateful to have a dad like him. After he came back from Taiwan, I see howmuch he’s changed and he seemed to have done a lot of self-reflection. Hesmiles a lot more now and it seems like he wants to make the most out of everyopportunity and to cherish every moment. He’s so much more intentional aboutdeveloping relationships now, especially with the family. I always saw that hehad it in him but he just had a hard time expressing it. He’s expressinghimself so much more and it warms my heart.
From just today, I saw that my dad is a great small group leader. He usesexamples that are easy to remember and applicable to our lives. He knows how toengage with people. He knows when to be serious and he knows how to jokearound. He always speaks well of other people and looks at the positive insteadof the negative. He’s a great host. He’s very creative. My dad is definitely pastormaterial.
After the “sermon”, David and Johnson prayed sincere and honest prayers forJerry as well as for trusting in Christ. Then, we went on and dad suggestedsome games that we could play. We played popping the balloon with our body, weplayed the “guess who’s gesturing” game. We laughed so hard we almost cried. Mymom and dad then sang a duet in Chinese for us while holding hands; it was socute. And then they asked us kids to sing a song. After hesitating, we decidedto sing “Amazing Love” together.They are not shy and they are always prepared to present no matter whatoccasion. I have so much to learn from them.
I learned something about special occasions last night that I hope to apply,especially for my parents’ birthday. For my dad, I hope to give him a nicemeaningful surprise when his birthday comes around. Here are some thoughts:have my brothers and I present a couple of songs that are well thought out andpracticed and have all the siblings write a long speech for my dad to love on andappreciate him (like what we did for Tito Virgil’s appreciation day). Theyalways want us to do that during holidays and special events in front of themand we never do because of our laziness. My parents do so much to support usand make us happy, this is the least of what we can do for them, they don’t askfor much.
If I could, I would record the whole entire night and play it over and overagain. I love my family.
He went around and made everyone speak a little about each topic. He askedeveryone to give examples of how we can apply each topic and he shared a littleabout his own personal story, though my mom was not absolutely comfortablebecause it involved her. It seemed like not everyone was ecstatic about thethings he was sharing because they were so focused on Jerry’s lottery ticketand it being about Jerry’s birthday. I, on the other hand, was so focused onwhat my father had to share. He was trying to make Jerry’s birthday ameaningful one instead of celebrating it in such a superficial manner. I feltso grateful to have a dad like him. After he came back from Taiwan, I see howmuch he’s changed and he seemed to have done a lot of self-reflection. Hesmiles a lot more now and it seems like he wants to make the most out of everyopportunity and to cherish every moment. He’s so much more intentional aboutdeveloping relationships now, especially with the family. I always saw that hehad it in him but he just had a hard time expressing it. He’s expressinghimself so much more and it warms my heart.
From just today, I saw that my dad is a great small group leader. He usesexamples that are easy to remember and applicable to our lives. He knows how toengage with people. He knows when to be serious and he knows how to jokearound. He always speaks well of other people and looks at the positive insteadof the negative. He’s a great host. He’s very creative. My dad is definitely pastormaterial.
After the “sermon”, David and Johnson prayed sincere and honest prayers forJerry as well as for trusting in Christ. Then, we went on and dad suggestedsome games that we could play. We played popping the balloon with our body, weplayed the “guess who’s gesturing” game. We laughed so hard we almost cried. Mymom and dad then sang a duet in Chinese for us while holding hands; it was socute. And then they asked us kids to sing a song. After hesitating, we decidedto sing “Amazing Love” together.They are not shy and they are always prepared to present no matter whatoccasion. I have so much to learn from them.
I learned something about special occasions last night that I hope to apply,especially for my parents’ birthday. For my dad, I hope to give him a nicemeaningful surprise when his birthday comes around. Here are some thoughts:have my brothers and I present a couple of songs that are well thought out andpracticed and have all the siblings write a long speech for my dad to love on andappreciate him (like what we did for Tito Virgil’s appreciation day). Theyalways want us to do that during holidays and special events in front of themand we never do because of our laziness. My parents do so much to support usand make us happy, this is the least of what we can do for them, they don’t askfor much.
If I could, I would record the whole entire night and play it over and overagain. I love my family.
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