Encouragement ...

One of the personal things I pray for is to be an encouragement to others.  Sometimes it comes easy, and then sometimes I really have to make an effort to encourage.   Some days it just seems to flow and be so easy to be nice to people ... and some days, not so much, lol!

Today at work, it was a HUGE Monday all on a Tuesday!  Not just first day back after a holiday, but first day of the new year.   WOW ... (and backwards) WOW!!!   I was challenged a few times today to say the least ... at times today I felt like everything I touched either didn't work, broke, dropped, smelled, could have been done different, spilled, got all over me, tangled up, leaked, backed up, was too high, or way too low, not to mention getting yelled out because THEIR insurance ran out Dec 31st, which funny though, seemed to be all MY fault! ... YIKES!   Ever have one of those days?!   I found myself saying out loud today, at least twice, that I should go home and start over.

Then there was the smelly lady ... bless her heart ... reeked of cat urine ... I'm SO glad I forced myself at that moment to be overly nice to her ... it was difficult at first (not because of the smell) but because the NEW paperwork that EVERY patient has to fill out due to it being a new year was NOT getting filled out because she was too busy watching "The View" on television in the lobby, which was VERY full today.  So it put me behind a bit waiting on her to finish ... she eventually finished, I processed it, and then she was called back to a room.  I honestly had forgotten about smelly cat lady until she got ready to leave (normally our patients leave out a different door and I normally only see them on arrival) ... she called out to me and said, "I'm leaving, thank you for being so nice to me" ... then she took a few steps and turned around and said, "I have something for you" ... (oh boy - she started digging in her purse, the smell wafting through the air heavily flowed my way) ..."I want to give you a special book mark, You have made my day today by being so nice and I want you to have one of my special bookmarks ... I pass these out as an encouragement to others" ... definitely softening even more, I about teared up at the thought that this unassuming woman was making an effort to be an encouragement to me ... along with the bookmark was a small tract about God ...  OK, this is now a test of the emergency Godcast system ... got my attention for sure!

I'm glad I chose to be nice to this lady in a very frustrating situation ... I could have let this morning's little sparks light my fuse and I would not have been blessed by her gesture.   I got to thinking ... this little lady, who came alone (most of our patients have drivers because they are in the middle of their rehab) probably does not have a lot of family and depends on her house full of cats as companionship and support and just wants to be "a giver" and an encouragement to someone.

... In the middle of my "little mess", I forget how BIG I'm BLESSED!

happy day ... Tammy