Just Another Day

 I've never had good experiences with birthdays. When it comes to birthdays, I grew up in a house you rarely got a present, if you were lucky you got a cake of your choice, and you picked out your favorite home cooked meal to have for dinner on your birthday night. My parents were never into the celebrating birthday thing, I barely got a happy birthday from them. I've learned over the years that birthdays are just another day, there's nothing special about them. Occasionally I forget that, and I actually get excited about my birthday, I get disappointed every time I do.
 It was almost my 13th birthday. I was so excited! My family never did anything for birthdays, but I remembered thinking this would be different since it's my big 13th birthday! I remembered how a few years ago was my sister Mollies 13th birthday, everyone celebrated it. My other sister and her husband took Mollie out for dinner, at her choice restaurant, another sister of mine got Mollie a card and some money and even my parents got her a card and a present. So even though birthdays have never been important in my household the 13th birthday must be! I had a dream where it was just like all my birthdays had been in the past. I brushed that dream aside. No way was it just gonna be like my normal birthdays when Mollies birthday was so awesome!
 Finally my 13th birthday arrived. It didn't take me long to realize my birthday was just another day, nobody cared that it was my big 13th birthday, and that I was finally a teenager. No cake, no presents, no cards, nothing except for a few happy birthdays. I was so disappointed, I cried that day a lot. Honestly it took me five years to get over my disappointment.. I thought nobody loved me. If they did they would have given me the special treatment Mollie had gotten on her birthday. With that being said, ever since my 13th birthday I pretty much hated birthdays in my mind nobody cared, my birthday just reminded me how much they didn't.
 This year will be my 20th birthday, I got excited again. This will be the first birthday that I have someone to celebrate it with, my boyfriend. We had planned to go over to his parents house to celebrate the new year, I was excited because him inviting me to spend time with his family isn't something that happens very often at all.
 My birthday would have been perfect, except things never go the way I want them to. Now, I have to freakin' work on my birthday. Why? Because my boss knew it was my birthday and didn't care. He wanted off that day, I guess if your the boss your allowed to be selfish though. He always claimed he appreciates all my hard work. Yeah, I can tell how much he appreciates me... So much I need to work on my birthday. Not only do I have to work on my birthday, but I have to close the store down on my birthday, when I shouldn't have had too. My sister, the manger whom writes the schedule could have at least let me get an hour off early and let someone else close. Honestly, as childish as this sounds, I cried several times over this whole thing within this past week. I'm okay now though, I think.
  Let me get something straight, I realize if it means so much to me that I don't work on my birthday I should have asked for it off. That was dumb of me to expect to get it off just because my sister writes the schedule. If I worked anywhere else that would have been expected to ask for it off and not just assume I would have it off. My boss may have known it was my birthday that day, but I guess when you are a boss you're allowed to be selfish.
  Despite me working on my birthday, I'm not going to let it ruin my day like I've done in the past when things don't go the way I want them too. Why not? Because there are things in life we can't control, but what we can control is our actions and our re-actions. We can control our attitude. If we choose to be upset about something we can't control what good does it do? It makes it where nobody wants to be around you that's about all it does. That's why I'm choosing to be happy despite me working on my birthday. I'm done being upset, that didn't help any it just made me feel worse.





                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                12-26-2014

No Room In the Inn

 It's Christmas tomorrow! I love Christmas! I was wiping down the shelves, checking the dates on all the items, and pulling the grocery items forward to make everything look nice the other day. While I was doing this I heard a Christmas song on the radio. The song I heard mentioned something about how there was no room for Jesus in the inn. That line got me thinking.
 There was no room in the inn for Jesus. He was born in a filthy stable instead. It's kinda disappointing to hear that, He's king! He deserved to be born somewhere nice and clean.
 Even now, as Christians there is no room for Jesus. Just like there was no room for Jesus in the inn, there is no room for Jesus in our lives. We cram our days with so many things it's hard to fit everything we need to do in it, so we do only what we find most important. How sad is that; There is no room for Jesus in our lives because we replaced him with the filthy lust of this world. Everyday we choose this world over Jesus. He should be king of our lives, not this world.
 We claim to be Christians yet there is no evidence of Christ in our lives. We're to busy for him.
Church?  I stayed up late last night I'm to tired. The Bible? I'm to busy. My day is booked I don't have time to read the Bible. It doesn't apply to be anyways. Prayer? What's the point? I doubt praying will do anything. Witness? I'll sound stupid. Music that praises God? Nah, I like my brake up, drunkin' parties, sex filled songs to much. We will come up with just about any excuse or justification to help us feel better about leaving Jesus out of our lives. The thing is God isn't fooled by them. He saw you could have left that party early, so you could wake up early to go to church. He saw you watching television when you could have been reading the Bible or praying. He sees our hearts. In the same way that you make time for your family and friends, if God really is important to you, you will make time for him.
It would be easy for Jesus to be in our lives constantly if somehow he was just forced in it. There would be no problem then. But we need to make room for Jesus, in the end he is the only thing that matters in the end anyways.
 Where is Jesus in your day? Is there room for Him? I hope so, I know this is something I've always struggled with. Jesus died for us, so that we have a way to heaven to live with Him eternally! The least we can do is bring him into our everyday lives.





 As you go through your day, remember to make room for Jesus. Here is one of my favorite Christmas songs, with a great reminder. Without Christ Christmas is nothing. This Is Christmas. I hope you have a very merry Christmas!!!

Never a Dull Moment

  I'll be honest, I don't have very many exciting stories to tell. I work at a grocery store. Yes, it can be as boring as it sounds. Very little happens where I work that is actually interesting or exciting, but yesterday afternoon, something interesting happened at work. Something that I would have never expected. The police came into the store I work at, fully armed.

 My day started out as a normal Thursday, until three o'clock in the afternoon. I looked out the window and saw a tan police blazer with its lights flashing red and blue, driving on the road right next to my work. I wondered where they were going. Next thing I know, I saw them pull into the parking lot! What the heck are the police doing here I wondered. There were three of them. They got out of the blazer extremely fast, then ran into the store shouting, "Police!" They each had their guns lowered like they were ready to use them at any moment. I can't even describe how confused I was at that moment. As far as I knew no one here had done anything even remotely wrong. One police officer shouted and asked if anyone was in the back of the store. I answered him and told him there was someone there. My sister was in the back of the store, working. They started to search the store. They split up, searching the small store, each one took their own aisle. They were headed to the back of the store. I knew there was nobody in the store except for my sister, the owner's dad, my boyfriend and myself. Of course, they didn't know that. As they were searching the store, my heart was pounding, I was scared. I was scared because my sister was in the back of the store. She didn't know police was in the grocery store; I bet you anything that was the last thing on her mind. This might sound silly, but I kept thinking of all the news stories and movies that showed an innocent civilian getting shot because the police didn't expect them. I was scared my sister would end up wounded, or worst dead. Exactly like the people on those shows. I know that probably doesn't happen very often, but the thought still crossed my mind. I was still very concerned. My boyfriend must have seen the concerned look in my eyes, he moved closer towards me and touched my back. Unfortunately, his comforting touch didn't help me any. I was relieved when I saw the police coming back to the front of the store without anyone. My sister turned out just fine.

 The whole event took less than ten minutes. The police found nobody, just as I expected. They said they were looking for an armed suspect who was wearing a blue vest. The suspect had been seen in the area, so they decided they needed to check out the grocery store I work at. They asked me if I had seen anyone fitting their vague description. I thought back, trying to remember seeing someone wearing a blue vest, but my mind was blank. I see so many customers in one day, someone in a blue vest isn't going to stand out to me. I remember people’s faces, not their clothes. Later on that day my sister reminded me of a customer who comes in regularly, came in wearing a blue vest. I remembered seeing him once she had mentioned him. I specifically remember he got six dollars’ worth of gas. Then he wished me a merry Christmas. I would be lying if I said I was surprised that this person is a suspect. The rumor is he is a drug dealer.

  Maybe this story wasn't as exciting as you might have expected it to be, but I found it very exciting. The whole thing seemed like a scene from a movie. It was that crazy. Sometimes I need stories like what happened yesterday, just to remind me my job isn't boring. Actually, after that, I am doubtful I will ever complain about having a boring job. This event made me realize that in reality I probably have a more eventful job than a lot of people do. Simply because I deal with hundreds of people each day, hundreds of crazy, dramatic, eventful people. People are full of events, which somehow manages to make my job just a little more exciting, sometimes.

                                                                                                                                                12-11-2014

It's Just a Penny

 "Okay, your total is $20.64."
 "Okay, here's the twenty." He paused, handing me the twenty dollar bill. He looked at the of the cash in his other hand and put in back in his wallet. "Let me see if I have the sixty four cents." He dug his hand in his pocket looking for change. I glanced at the line and saw two other people waiting behind him.
 "Okay." I said annoyed. He knew I was about to close, yet he was still taking as long as possible.
 Finally, a minute later he pulled out a handful of change. He moved his fist full of change towards me. I started to grabbed sixty five cents.
 "Yeah, you can get it." He said like he didn't want me to at first. As I was putting the money in the cash register, I glanced behind him and saw five people in line now.
  "Have a good night." I fake smiled. He just stood there like he still wanted something. "You gave me back exact change." I reminded him.
  "Well, not exactly." Once he said that I realized that I shorted him a penny. Oops, shame on me. I opened the register in a hurry, I grabbed two pennies on accident and handed them to him. "It was sixty four cents, I gave you sixty five.You only owe me one penn..." I cut him off talking to the next customer in line.
  "Is that it for you today?"
 I felt pretty awesome for doing that. He knew I was suppose to be closed right now, yet he was still taking his time, and he made a big deal over a freakin' penny. I mean come on, it was just a penny. I felt like he deserved me being a little rude to him. I had a line, I was already suppose to be closed, I wasn't gonna waste anymore time with this guy who obviously had no consideration for my time. That was my thought process at the moment. I realize now, even though it was just a penny I shorted him, I should have apologized and meant it. I'm suppose to be like-Christ. I need to be an example for this lost and dying word, even if that means being nice to people who have no consideration. In the same way pennies always add up to something bigger, so does small things I do to be an example. Everything I do makes a difference someway or another.



                                                                                                                                                12-12-2014
                                                                                                                           

Be Grateful

"Hello! How are you today?" I asked a customer as he entered the store.
"I'm doing okay, I guess." He answered.
"Oh. Well, I guess that's good." I said feeling a little awkward.
"Yeah, I could be better" He replied.
"Could be worse." I said, once again feeling awkward.
"Could be better." He snapped back. I was silent after that.

This conversation I had with a customer the other day reminds me of the same one had in Perspective. Yeah, I understand bad things happen. I understand that things always can be better. The thing is you're still living! You can talk, you can see, you can hear! It seems to me things aren't as bad as you think they are. This is definitely a perspective issue.
 I know I've already wrote a blog on perspective so I really don't have much of a need to write one again. This is pretty much just a reminder instead. Be grateful; things might be bad in you life, but they're still better than others people's problems...








                                                                                                                                                12-10-2014

Gossip

  I realized a few days ago one of my many bad habits... Gossip. I really do love to gossip, I love telling other people things about people that I've found out.
  The other night a lady came into the store and gave me some juicy gossip on her ex-boyfriend, my boyfriends co-worker, and one of my customer. Ash calls him "dreadlock kid".
  From the second dreadlock kid's ex-girlfriend told me what she told me I was already super excited about telling Ash this rumor. This was some good stuff! I almost texted Ash the rumor. As I was tying my text something stopped me. My conscience... It felt like what you see on the cartoons, the devil on the left side of the shoulder, with an angel on the right one.
  Devil: "You should tell Ash and your boyfriend! They will get a kick out of this rumor!"
  Angel: "You know you shouldn't gossip."
  Devil: "Gossip? Psh! What's the big deal?"
  Angel: "You know you're suppose to be lifting others up. Gossip is the opposite. You lower them down when you spread rumors like that."
 Devil: "You're not lowering him. You're just gonna tell a good story about him. Everyone expects something like that from him anyways."
 Angel: "Why are you gonna tell them the story? Why do they need to know? Does it effect them? If it doesn't you telling them will lower him."
 Devil: *Speechless*
 Sorry if that was a lousy example, but you get the point. That was my thought process and that last line the angel used was what made me realize that there is no way to sugarcoat gossip it's still wrong. It's so easy to get caught up into gossip, but I need to work on building people up instead of lowering them.
 ^{Ephesians 4:29 NLT} Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
 This verse really stuck out to me when I first read it. I know it was probably talking about cuss words but I think it can be used about gossip just as well. Making sure that everything I say is encouraging is part of not gossiping. When I tell someone a rumor that isn't encouraging anyone. It's only lower them.




Verses To Ponder:  

^{Titus 3:2 NLT} They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.
^{Proverbs 11:13 NLT} A gossip goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.




                                                                                                                                                12-03-2014