Mondays!!! Not For Me!

For years I've been an advocate of eliminating Mondays. UGH! They seem to always be such a challenge for me. For months now, I have been determined not to let Monday defeat me. When I am scheduled for work EARLY on Mondays, I keep telling myself that "early in" means "early out." Been a major help to me to process that thought in this brain of mine!



This past Monday turned out to be one of the most challenging Mondays I've had in a long time. One challenge after another after another happened all day long. I had to be at work at 7am. When my feet hit the floor they hit the floor with my great attitude: early in, early out! Off to work I went. I do remember I prayed, "Lord, whatever it is I need today, thank You for giving it to me." Somehow, I knew an extra prayer was going to be needed!



I barely got in the door and the news of a "call off" was given to me. Challenge number one. Instead of being on a nice, simple, easy express register, I was getting sent to the tobacco register which is the register that never shuts down. Okay, I can do that! I will conquer!



Before 9 am I was nearly in tears. First one thing, then another. Customers in a line waiting too long. Customers walking out without paying for merchandise. Short on help, tall on challenges! A long line of customers with no extra help and sure enough, someone dumped their liquid laundry soap at the finish line of my register! Have you ever tried to clean up liquid laundry soap? The service desk employee came to my rescue and told me to tend to the line and she'd handle the mess. Thank you sweet Jesus for my help! Mentally I continued to grab any piece of a Bible verse that would come to my mind. "He will never leave me nor forsake me." Ahhhhhh......that helped a lot! I knew God was right there in that place going thru every challenge WITH ME.



Early in also means early "brunch" time. Off the floor I nearly ran in desparation to sit down and regroup! On a day when I simply wanted to be "left alone" so I could regroup, I ended up with a table full of coworkers who "never get to have lunch with me" and was thrilled to be doing so. So much for the peace and quiet, BUT.....the laughter and the sharing of challenges proved to be a real uplift.



Inside I kept claiming one promise after another. A younger believer, fellow coworker, who I am priviledged to call a new found friend, seemed to be having the same kind of day. Every chance I had, I'd encourage her to "grab a promise" and "hang on." My goodness what a help that was to her and to me!!!



I was sure after brunch the day would be better! Refreshed and regrouped, back to the battlefield I went. It never got any better. I'd drop change. I'd not be able to get the bills to come out of the drawer. I couldn't get things to go in the bags right. I'm telling you if it could happen, it did! Anyone who thinks the job of a cashier is easy, go work in our shoes for a day! Everyone thought they needed to throw the heavy stuff on the black belt. This body doesn't "deal with heavy" anymore. I was constantly scanning and asking customers to put it back in their carts! Most of the time the customers I have will ask if it needs up on the belt. Not on Monday! Unless I caught them before they did it and asked them not to, on the black belt went every bag of dogfood, every case of bottled water, everything that was heavy! This body doesn't do heavy anymore. Never ceases to amaze me how thoughtless people can be, but......no time for judging or complaining. God gave me strength and helped me thru each minute.



Now, I realize that most of this makes no sense to anyone reading it. I am trying to get us all to understand that no matter the challenges in our life, God is with us. He gives us strength to get thru the "small stuff" as well as the big stuff. We are His kids! Not only are we His kids, but HE decided to pick us to be His kids! My goodness how special that makes me feel! The God of the universe, the Creator of all, decided He wanted me to be one of His kids! I must be special!



I want to share this one last thing with you. God gave me a HUGE hug about half an hour before time for me to go home. I was exhausted! I wanted to sit down and needed to sit down. On the tobacco register you are confined. No sitting down. No stopping. I so simply wanted to go home! A customer came thru with a rather large order. I began to scan her merchandise and God's arms reached out around me thru this customer, and HE hugged me while she said, "All the chocolate in the world wouldn't fix the kind of Monday I've had."


Don't tell me God wasn't aware of the challenging Monday I had!



"In the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High, to God who PERFORMS ALL THINGS for me." Psalms 57:1-2



Okay, so it was the small stuff.....it still mattered to HIM!



Til next time.................hugs to all.............Dea