It’s been three months since I last blogged. Giving an update to the theme of the blog last November, we are still steering our business by God’s grace. He has been our beacon and constant source of guidance and comfort through the loss of key employees and the search for replacements.
We have another front desk person now and have hired two other employees that will help take the load off us. For months, my hubbie and I have done the best we could to do our jobs as well as the jobs of those who left. Of course, we were unable to completely do 4 jobs between the two of us so what happened was that we “triaged” to what was the most urgent.
“Urgent” vs “Important” is always a balance. The urgent means that we fulfill current orders and keep current clients happy however the cost to that is that the important things that “don’t have to get done today” really do NOT get done today…or tomorrow or next week or next month. It’s very easy to let 3 months go by and realize that the essential activities of continuing to try to bring in new clients has stalled in the busyness of the fulfilling the “urgent”. In this business, there is the constant need to keep adding clients because some percentage of clients will fall to the wayside each year as they will not need this year what they ordered last year.
It’s been three months of turning off our computers about midnight. Success for us with these new employees will be evident when we are able to transfer enough work to their shoulders such that those computers go off hours earlier. I have realized it is hard to “let go”; I want to make sure that everything is done “right” which means “the way I would do things”. I will have to let these new employees to do things a bit differently from me as long as the end result is the same. Delegation can be hard!
My difficulty in “letting go” relates also to steering by a heavenly beacon; I have to watch for God’s leading closely enough that I can see and adjust my actions as needed. Sometimes I forget to look or forget to ask for wisdom in the midst of my day. As a whole though, these past few months have been a time of intense prayer and reading scripture just to soak some peace into my soul.
I have the bible on my phone and have recently discovered that I can turn the audio aspect on and listen to scripture being read as I’m driving between clients. I have been able to “read” much more this way by listening during drive time. Somehow I used to think that it didn’t count unless I actually visually read my bible but seriously, I don’t think Jesus cares if I read or listen as long as I do.
Driving is a great time for prayer as well and certainly the last few months have given us much reason to do so. My husband told me a few weeks ago that he tries to thank God each day for something, no matter how small and that helps him move his eyes away from the tough parts of the day. I have been trying that as well. He is better at it than I am but practice makes perfect.
I have been asking for very specific things lately and I have seen God’s grace in answering them. We have had terrible weather the last two days and at 2 pm yesterday, I had a scheduled install outside that had to get done or would get pushed to today. I desperately did not want to install on Saturday morning as our days are so long anyway. I prayed for clear skies above this install location at 2 pm even if the rest of the city was raining. All morning yesterday the rain poured down outside our studio. The rain had stopped by the time I started to drive to the install location with my installer. As we approached the location, we drove back into dark clouds and it started raining again. When we got to our location though at 10 minutes before 2 pm, I looked up; there was blue sky above with fluffy white clouds floating in the sky instead of the murky dark storm cloud cover that I had been seeing. The sky stayed clear the entire hour we were there and we got the install done.
After we got back to our studio it rained again. I pulled out my phone and realized that I had a text from the manager of the install location. The timestamp was 1:18 pm; I was driving by then and didn’t see it. The text said, “It’s pouring rain here, how about coming Saturday instead?”
I am counting this as a really personal answer to prayer. That clear sky when we needed it protected my Saturday morning, which is why I’m sitting in my recliner in my favorite comfy flannel Minnie Mouse PJs, drinking coffee and blogging.
Later today I am going to get back to writing my book which has been neglected for the past 3 months as well. I had wanted to finish it by summer so want to keep going. I’m somewhere around 70% done. I would say “wish me luck” but think a better request would be “wish me God’s grace to write what He gives me to write”.
I wish all of you God’s grace in the midst of what you are going through. It’s easy to feel alone with trials but you have heavenly support. Take care. Wear comfy flannel PJs around the house sometimes too.
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