High Standards

    The other day I was working on a task with someone. When we arrived at the point where they felt that it was complete, they wanted to leave. It upset me because, to me, it was not. This landed us in an argument. The person left, and I finished the task to my standards. Now, in no way is this story about blaming the other person. I am intentionally not saying who they are because it is not about them. It's about me and God. I debated not sharing this post in case anyone figures out who this person is and develops ill feelings towards this person on my behalf. I decided to post it though because I wanted to share with you all what God has been doing in my heart and life recently. So where we go.

    After they walked away, I prayed through my frustration and asked God to convict me of my sin and show me where I was wrong. I was not sure if I was wrong, so I figured I would let God be the judge of that. After I calmed down, I went to the person, they were angry. I asked why. They said that my standards were too high.

    I pondered their anger for a minute with the desire to make it right. I felt bad that I had hurt them, but I did not feel bad for having high standards. After another minute of pondering I said to the person that I was sorry for hurting them with my high standards. I was not sorry for having high standards, I believe they are God-given, but I was sorry for hurting them. They forgave me, and we moved on.

    The next day, a friend and fellow believer asked me if God had been teaching me anything new recently. I pondered for a minute and recounted the above story and said that God was teaching me that it is okay to have high standards, good even. I cannot put them on others though or expect others to live up to my standards. I was amazed at the timing of their question because I had not thought of the previous day's experiences as God teaching me something. It was an amazing "God moment."

    God has made each one of us different, different likes and dislikes, and so on. He also gave us different standards. This is good because if we all had the same standards the world would be a very different place.

    So now God is teaching me that He did give me high standards, but I am not allowed to push them on others or get mad when someone does not live up to mine.

This whole new learning curve has been a breath of fresh air and has stopped me from getting upset when those around me do not do things the way I think they should be done. Yes, I know I sound like a control freak because I am one. That is something else I am working on. One thing at a time though. Because I am no longer frustrated when people do not do things to my standards, I am now able to live with more peace and harmony with myself and those around me. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest.

You see, by getting upset that someone does not have the same standards or do things the way you do it, we are telling God that He did not create that person properly. I do not know about you, but I have no intention of telling God, the creator of heaven and earth that He messed up when He created someone. So the next time you get frustrated that someone does not do a task the way you want it done, remember that God created them that way. Now, maybe they do have some growing to do in that area, but that is not up to us. It is up to God. So I am going to God with my frustrations and say, "here, you deal with this."

So, friends, it has been a big week for me as I walk in this new lesson from God and not impose my standards on others.

I pray that this post finds you well and blesses you.

God Bless

~Ruth

I  chose this photo today because when I originally took the picture it did not turn out the way I wanted. So I did a bit of editing to bring it up to my high standards, and this beauty is now the end result. Enjoy. 😊

I am so grateful.

    Grateful has been my word for the last few weeks. At the beginning of November, God blessed my hubby and I with a new job for me. We moved at the end of September and I spent October making our temporary living space a home while looking for work. It was a difficult month because a lot of my self-worth is tied to my ability to bring in a paycheck. I applied for lots of jobs and had a few interviews but nothing was happening. I finally applied to a factory that happened to be one kilometer from where we are currently staying. Hello, quick commute. So I applied. I did not know anything about the business let alone have the job experience to put on my resume, but I went anyway. I walked into the visitor entrance and told the receptionist that I wanted to hand in my resume and she replied with "I want to give you an interview." I walked out of the office a minute later with an interview set up for the following morning. Praise the Lord.

    The next morning God blessed me with a great interview. Whereby the time I walked out of it, the man conducting the interview had to hold back from hiring me on the spot. I could see the wheels turning in his head and he was trying not to hire me on the spot. Most of the time when you walk out of an interview you have no idea what the person thought. This time I knew and I was relatively certain that I would get a call with an offer of employment.

    I am so grateful.

    Two days later I received a phone call with an offer of employment and that orientation would start the following Monday, the phone call occurred at 12:30 pm on Friday. Two days later I would be an employee. I applied on October 26th and one week later, on November 1st I had a job.

    I am so grateful.

    I did not know what shift I was going to be on. There was a day shift and an afternoon shift. Not only am I a morning person, but I have also worked on the afternoon shift for a different company and was miserable. The shift time was not the only reason for my misery, but it was a good chunk of it. Plus my husband works from 8 till 5 pm, so if I got the days shift we would be able to have dinner together and share our evenings, versus only seeing each other on the weekends. So I spent the next three days praying for the day shift. When I attended orientation I was informed that I was on the day shift. Praise the Lord. An answer to our prayers.

    I am so grateful.

    So now I work in a local factory, making good money and in six months we will have benefits.

    I am so grateful.

    It is not a glamorous job. It is a dusty factory. I wear work boots and I come home dusty and sometimes dirty, but I have a job. For the last few years, I have been wanting to work somewhere I could dress nicely and put myself together. For now, though God has been putting me in businesses where I wear steel-toe shoes and generally do not want to sit down on my furniture before I have showered and changed. That is okay though because I like my work boots and I do not mind coming home dusty or dirty. You see, the last few weeks have taught me that I can enjoy both sides of my personality, the girly girl on the weekends and the work boot wearing general labor during the week. I also struggled a little with the idea of working in a "dead end job" of a factory, but then I remembered that someone has to do it because we do need products that are made in factories, and therefore it is an important job. It may not always look like an important job, but it is. Because God has given it to me to help take care of my family.

    I am so grateful.

    Maybe someday I will work in an office setting and get to wear high heels to work and curl my hair, but for now, I am going to embrace my work boots and my french braid. Because God has blessed my family with a second income. An income that we need, but God has brought it to us. I spent a lot of time praying for this job in October and God did some work in my hard in regards to my mindset about why I wanted the job. In the beginning, my reasons were a whole lot more selfish, mixed in with a few good reasons for wanting a job.

    Then one day, God, Blessing, and I were on a walk and God explained to me that I needed to change my desire for having a job from want to "contribute" to my family finances to "being a helpmate" Genesis 2:20, to my husband and helping pay our bills. Boy, was that ever a gamechanger in my thought process.

    I am so grateful.

    Now we are blessed with two incomes and are able to not only pay our bills but are also able to take some of the financial goals we have had for a few years now and start putting them into action. No, money is not everything, and yes, I do struggle with putting money on a high shelf closer to God than I should and I am working on it. It is, however, a tool that God has given to us to use for His glory and our pleasure.

    So every time someone has asked me over the last few weeks how I like my job, I simply say that I am grateful to have a job. God is protecting me in this factory, (another story for another day) and providing for my family. We serve a great and mighty God friends.

    I am so grateful.

I pray that this post blesses you today in your walk with Christ.

God Bless

~Ruth

After my orientation on the Monday morning, my hubby and I had an apt, I saw these trees on our drive that day and decided after words I would return for a photo shoot. I am so grateful for how this picture turned out. 😉