Some good reminders

It was a long day today. At my restaurant, we had almost 2000 visitors today. There were three managers from two different departments who kept coming down and trying to change the way that we were doing things. My assistant cook was in a bad mood because of all of this and he spent a good portion of the day sulking. There were two other employees who were working down in my kitchen, plus me. And then there were three cashiers. It was a really stressful day. In the midst of all of this, we had two volunteers.

There was a guy from Milwaukee who was here with his little sister. She wanted to come spend a weekend volunteering at the museum for her high school graduation present. Jake spent some time in my kitchen.

It was really interesting to watch this mix of people and stress and busy-ness. The managers were all yelling at each other. Most of the employees (myself included) were not as nice as we could have been to each other.

But the volunteers... Because of training/board of health regulation issues, when we have volunteers in the kitchen, their days are pretty boring. They get stuck doing dishes, busing tables, and breaking down boxes. All. Day. Long. But the volunteers were really happy to be there. They had a great attitude. They worked hard. They laughed. It was a completely different attitude from the employees.

So what does any of this have to do with being a Proverbs 31 woman? Well, as I started thinking about it, I realized that attitude makes so much difference in the way that we approach life. If I look at this in a "oh, I have to do this" kind of way, and I drudge through, I'm not going to be a very happy person, and most of the people around me won't be very happy either.

I guess this is really similar to being filled with joy even in the midst of trials that the Bible talks about so much. I'm still processing exactly what this means, but I think that I need to focus a lot on my attitude in all of this, rather than a checklist.

Especially after you've done something for awhile, it can start to get mired in routine, and it is so easy to lose sight of the goal of doing that in the first place. The museum is a really cool place to work. I'm blessed to have some really great coworkers, and a generally great atmosphere in my kitchen. Even though I knew that, I think that my actions have sometimes shown that I didn't really recognize it.

It is my hope that I will be able to maintain a sense of wonder throughout my 40 days, and that I will be able to always approach this study and path of transformation with a fresh heart, and a life that is open for God's work. And I hope that God continues to place people like those volunteers in my life to keep that goal always before me.