To the Only One Who Can Work This Out...

Most Precious and Holy God,

Thank for gifting me with a vocation, a calling...rather than just a job. Thank for putting in a place where I can share your love with others. I cherish the smiles, the hugs, the thank-yous, the peace I see in the eyes of new parents as they entrust their children to us.

Lord, you alone are powerful enough and wise enough to really make a difference with the situations at work. Anytime you have people working together there is always conflict of some kind. Help us, Lord. Help us to be bold enough and courageous enough to not gossip about one another - to confront each other with gentleness and mercy when we have offended each other. It is especially hard, I think, to work in an environment that is comprised of only women. The more I exist in this kind of work-place, the more awe I have in your creation; that you created men and women to be counterparts, to be complimentary, to be in balance.

I am tired, Father. I am tired of the bickering, the back-biting, the ugliness of some of my staff at work. I am tired of knowing, but not knowing because no one will come to me, where the problems lie. Help me to be strong here; to be courageous enough myself to do whatever you would have me do to create a more peaceful workplace. Lord, there may be a couple of tough decisions that have to be made in the next few weeks--grant me wisdom to know what you would have me do and then remind me that You will never give me more than I can handle. Help me to reside in you always-to be ever-aware of how You would have me act and react; to be graceful; to be merciful; to be forgiving...even when I don't want to.

Holy God, my strength lies in You. It is so hard to be in charge of so many young persons. I remember being 20-30 yrs old and thinking that I had it all under control and that things were either right or wrong. What I would give for that decisiveness again! Black and white was so much easier than all this gray. Help me to know what situations are being driven by immaturity and how I can help with those places by coaching or mentoring. Help me to know when a situation is just not working out and how You would have me correct that.

Lord, you know my heart; you know my soul; you know my mind and you know my strength. I would do whatever you would have me do...I just don't know what that is! In Your Son's most Holy and Precious Name, Amen.

Matthew's working it out...

Matthew is taking tennis lessons with 4 other kids at the local park and we're almost done with this set of lessons. He's doing great and wants to continue playing, but it's going to get cold soon, so we must move indoors to play. Anyway, we had a very interesting conversation tonight.

There is one other boy in the group who tends to be extremely wound-up for the lessons. So much so that his mom just leaves because she can't stand to watch. He makes Matthew crazy because when they are paired up, this other little boy (Joshua) hits the ball so high into the air that there's no way Matthew can hit it back to him. That's the background you need for this conversation.

We're in the car...
M: Joshua makes me crazy all I do is chase balls for him. (He continues for a few minutes with this same complaint.) What should I do? I don't want to hit with him.

Me: Well....is there anything in the Bible or that you've learned in Sunday School that could help?

M: Yeah, I can't wait until I get to hit to him-I'm going to hit the ball to the other end of the court! Cause Jesus said, "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." so he must WANT me to make him run.

Me: Ok that's one way to look at it. Jesus also said we must forgive each other 70 times 7 times.

M: How many is that?

Me: A lot...too many to count.

M: Hmph! I'll just count really high and then hit the ball back to him REALLY hard and REALLY high.

Me: I think what Jesus meant was that we were to forgive each other as much as He forgives us, since we're supposed to be trying to act like Jesus all the time.

M: (Sigh-very dejected) I guess I'm going to be chasing a LOT of balls, then.

Me: And getting lots of exercise - that's a good thing.

M: I guess so.

I love that Matthew is able to think through this stuff. What a hard lesson to learn and relearn and relearn and relearn! For me anyway, this is one that I continue to work on - especially with those people who do the same thing over and over and over again. I guess I'll continue to 'chase balls' with my little guy!