The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
1) Sheets that haven't been changed for a while. (For practical reasons I can't change them every day or even usually every few days. Our beds usually get changed on Fridays or Saturdays but by the time it gets to that point honestly it's hard for me to sleep. My best night of sleep is the night I change the sheets and duvet cover. It's like heaven!!!)
2) Whining. (leads to wilderness living instead of promised land living.)
3) A sense of entitlement in the church. When will people understand, it's not about what they get, it's about what they give? Everytime I hear another complaint about, "the church" not doing something for somebody and them having themselves in a tizzy about it, it doesn't make me more mindful to help them. It makes me more determined to shut my ears to this kind of stuff and focus on something else because that kind of behavior is just plain wrong and unGodly.
4) Bad pizza. I just won't "spend the points" to eat it. Not worth it. The only pizza I will eat except rare occasions in Tampa would be Amici's. I also love Uno's but there aren't any around here, so I just normally eat there on trips. The fact that they put calamata olives on pizza? GENIUS.
5) Excuses. They are dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Just do what you're supposed to do, when you're supposed to do it. That's how it's supposed to work in this life.
6) Trophy wives...kept women..."arm candy" as I call it. I tolerate them so little that I have none of them currently in my life as friends or associates. When I meet one all I can think is, "when are you going to do something to justify your existence on planet earth?" By the way, Larry told me a great joke yesterday. He said, "A friend of mine just married someone and she's basically a trophy wife. Evidently she didn't take first place..." ha ha ha!
7) People who want to spend a lot of time pouring all their problems out to me, but never take my advice. No time for it, sorry. Side note - the other day I was having brunch with Ada and as usual I shared a few challenges with her and she spoke her wisdom into my life as she always does. Immediately I was like, "yes...yes, I get this..." and started putting it into practice and I've felt like a different woman for the past two days. So why don't so many people do that? Why do they yap on to people incessently about what's bothering them, receive advice but then discard it? As for me I take advice and eat it up like a Dove chocolate! Most of the time when I'm with Ada I'm gulping her advice, I don't just eat it.
8) Rudeness. At 41 years old, I find myself doing one of two things when I encounter blatant rudeness. I either immediately remove myself from the situation and make it clear I will not stay in the presence of rudeness or I correct it. For instance, if someone were standing there berating one of my friends I wouldn't just stand there and listen to it thinking, "is it my place to say something?" At this point in my life I'd stand up and say it, my place or not and if someone wants to hate me, let them.
9) Inappropriate cell phone usage. I won't compete with a cell phone. Just not gonna do it. I really believe they have become a serious hindrance to our society today and believe the bad is outweighing the good currently because people today don't understand proper manners. Check your ettiquette books people...it's rude to constantly be interrupted by calls when you are with other people.
The one reason I like a cell phone is to keep track of my kids and make sure they are safe, and to talk to my family and tell them I love and miss them when I'm away. And that's it. Otherwise, cell phones in my opinion can go straight back to Hades where they came from. Cell phones were not invented in Japan, by Verizon, Cingular or anybody else on this earth. Please realize, they came straight from the Big B himself...BEELZEBUB.
Don't you hate it when you are in a conversation with someone and their phone rings and they keep answering it? That is so rude. You can often forget what you were talking about, and the moment is blown. I have even been sitting with people in a serious conversation, one of us can be bearing our hearts or crying and "bbbbrrrrrring!" there it goes, or worse yet irritating songs come on. True story: one Wednesday night in church service somebody in our church did not turn their cell phone off. Right in the midst of church Carrie Underwood's "Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats" came blaring on. Was this a prophetic word? No, it was STUPIDITY!
I have been with people where half of our time together was spent in interruptions from their cell phone. One thing I love about Pastor Lisa is that when you are "with her" you are seriously WITH HER. The whole weekend I was with her in Houston, if the phone rang she pressed "ignore" and gave me her full attention. I was impressed. Ada always does the same thing, unless it's one of her kids. That's my only exception too. I will answer if it's Larry or my kids and take a very brief call and then profusely apologize and say that because it was my family I felt I needed to take the call as they come first. Everyone's husband, wife, or kids should come first especially whereas concerns their safety. But otherwise? Geez whiz people, GIVE YOUR FULL ATTENTION TO WHO YOU ARE WITH. So, to make a long rant longer, let me just say that I refuse to compete with cell phones. When somebody does this to me, (and it's not their immediate family calling) I immediately switch gears and start doing something else. Sometimes I leave. Sometimes I pull out my work folders, start working to use the time wisely instead of sitting and staring at them waiting for them to finish their conversation about the dog they just adopted from the pound, or who won their kid's soccer game. Or sometimes I just say, "evidently this isn't a good time for you...let's catch up later..." The way I see it is...my time is valuable. I don't have time to sit there and listen to somebody's cell phone calls or God forbid wait until they text message somebody (another tool from the abyss).
and my final crowning "low tolerance" for the day...
10) People who text message or instant message me when they can either:
a) Talk to me face to face because we are in the same building.
b) Pick up the phone and call me instead of doing this slow back and forth deal. The thing is, I type 130 words a minute so text messaging or IM'ing will never be quick enough for me. It drives me crazy. Yes, I hate the phone but I'd much prefer it to texting or IM'ing.
Do I sound old? Maybe so. I am getting older. I don't consider myself stuffy, but really folks, these are things in life that do make me just a little irritated and some of them are changes in our world that I don't know are truly advancements. Technologically? Yes. Relationally? Probably not.
Comments
Trust me, you're someone who impressed me because I felt like when I was with you I was truly "with you". And that meant a lot.
P.S. I do use texting, but I hate it (I'm also a freakishly fast typist, and I don't have the patience for it...BUT it uses up fewer units on my Trac Phone to text "Pick me up, please!" to my husband than it does to call him and tell him the same thing!).