I just got back from 16 days in Newfoundland with my family. It was the kind of trip that fills you up in the best way, with long days by the ocean, meals around the table, and the gift of unhurried time with the people I love most.
I’ve always been so close to my family. My parents, my brother, and I have always been best friends and still are. We’ve laughed, cried, celebrated, and weathered storms together. We’ve always loved doing life together. (It’s funny how we ended up east, central, and western Canada… I always say the Lord wanted to share us around, you know? Haha)
When I was home, spending time with family, I found myself reflecting on my upbringing: close-knit family dinners with the kitchen overflowing with warm chatter and the clanging of dishes, birthday parties where grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all gathered to eat cake, encourage one another, and play games… Oh, and the backyard BBQs that always included a family game of football.
And then there was Christmas. Christmas meant building snowmen when it “turned Christmas Eve” and the very serious Christmas productions my cousins and I would spend months preparing in my childhood basement (yes, there were rehearsals, costumes, and a captive, somewhat coerced, audience).
The special thing about all of these memories was that they were always steeped in times of prayer, insights about what God was teaching one another, and worship around a piano. They were always Spirit-filled.
That heritage has shaped my life in ways I’m still discovering.
“One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” Psalm 145:4
That’s what my family has done for me: passed down not just traditions, but faith. And there’s one person I want to tell you about today: my grandfather, Cecil.
My Poppy Cec
This summer, I saw my Pop for the first time in a year. He’s my only grandparent left on earth, and time with him feels increasingly precious. At his age, I find myself wanting to soak up everything—his stories, his perspective, his wisdom.
My pop has always had the best attitude of anyone I’ve ever met. No matter the situation, he’d find a solution and somehow always enjoy the process of finding it. Always had a smile on his face.
He was ultra-reliable. He’d say, “Call me anytime” and rhyme off his phone number—727-7271—as if we could forget it. I think all of us cousins treated it like a personal taxi service. You called, he answered. No voicemail. Always there.
He was the friendliest man you could meet. My pop could talk to anyone and somehow leave them smiling. He made people feel seen and welcome. He served faithfully on the greeting team at church for as long as I can remember: a big smile, a firm handshake, and a sincere, “How are you doing?” every Sunday.
And he was the ultimate encourager. He carried a little dollar-store notebook in his shirt pocket, filled with quotes, sayings, and bits of wisdom he’d heard on the radio or read in the paper.
One of his favorites, which he told me over and over during this visit:
The time to be happy is now.
The place to be happy is here.
The way to be happy is to make someone happy,
and to have a little heaven down here.
The Full-Circle Moment
When I got back home from Newfoundland, I was downstairs in my kids’ playroom and noticed something hanging on the wall in Lively’s little play kitchen area.
It has always been there, but it really stuck out to me this particular day.
It was a note my pop wrote to me when I was 18 years old—something I had kept all these years without realizing how much it would mean to me now. I smiled seeing it there, now on the wall in my kiddo’s playroom, like his wisdom was quietly watching over the next generation.
I still love every word. And I thought you might find these nuggets just as motivating and encouraging as I do.
To Achieve Personal Success: 7 Decisions
Be Responsible
Seek Wisdom
Actions (He didn’t elaborate here, haha, but I imagine actions matter. He certainly lived that way.)
Have a Decided Heart
“Today I Will Choose To Be Happy”
“I Will Greet Each Day With a Forgiving Spirit”
“I Will Persist Without Exception”
A Legacy Worth Passing On
My pop was more than wise sayings, a great smile, work ethic, and fierce dependability. Everything my pop was and is was fuelled by his deep love and commitment to Jesus.
Carrying It Forward
Spending time with my grandfather reminded me that Christian heritage isn’t something to take for granted. It’s something to steward.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road…” Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Faith is meant to be spoken, lived, and handed down. And that’s what my pop, my parents, and my family have done for me.
I want to do the same: to gather my children around the table, to tell them the stories of God’s faithfulness, to model a life of following Jesus. Whether or not you have kids, you can do this with those you do have around you.
Here are a few nuggets of wisdom I’m taking from my Poppy Cec that maybe you want to take for a walk too…
Live motivated by the eternal, not the temporal. Your example will outlive you. The way you live today is shaping someone else around you and then someone else’s tomorrow.
Be present. Show up for your people. Be a consistent presence in people’s lives.
Share your faith. Look—really look—for opportunities every day to show God’s love to those around you. Tell the stories. Talk about God’s goodness daily.
Serve together. Involve your family in serving others and in ministry. Let them see the joy in it and grow in Christlikeness together.
Write it down. Whether it’s wisdom, Scripture, or life lessons, put it in writing for yourself and others to glean from it.
Well, poppy Cec, thank you.