The attitude story.
So the other day my husband and I went to the diner for dinner. The diner is owned by Tony, Tony has been unable to hire help because everyone is getting unemployment and stimulus checks. So his wife was waiting tables. She was very unhappy and everyone in the restaurant knew that she felt, she was above serving.
Then I found out that I had to work with my husband for the same reason. So I prayed, “God I don’t want to be like her. I don’t even know how I should feel right now. But I know that I need an attitude adjustment. God please adjust my attitude so that I will be pleasing to you.” Oh no! When you have a 4 year old who needs an attitude adjustment you get out the wooden spoon. “Oh God please don’t use the wooden spoon! Well God I trust you. Whatever I need. Oh and God, please give me the energy, stamina and strength I need to make it through the night.”
So I remembered that whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord. So I curled my hair and put on lipstick. Because if Jesus is my boss that is what I would do.
There is a verse in the Bible that says to put on immortality, and to put on incorruption. I don’t know how to put on immortality. If it was easy, no one would die. So I take my supplements and vitamins, try to eat healthy I just try to do my best. But when I read that I should put on incorruption, I knew exactly what to do! “Honey I need to buy some fake eyelashes! It says so right here in the Bible! See put on incorruption.” What could he do? It said it right there!
So I went to work. We seal, crack fill, paint, sweep, and install bumper blocks and signs, on parking lots. That night we were doing a shopping center in Philadelphia. In the center was a grocery store and then a drug store a dollar store etc. down at the far end was a bar. The name of the bar was Chicago. Around the entire thing was a no parking fire lane. The painters who had come before us had a different size stencil and the painters who had come before them had another size stencil. So here we came with a third size. My husband mixed black and white paint to match the color of the black top and I went around blacking out the letters. After the paint dried, we used our stencils and repainted the no parking fire lane. I was feeling pretty good. Ummmm how many squats can you do in 4 hours?
I was feeling pretty good. But there was an argument down at the bar, so I went down to see what was going on. There was 2 bouncers and 3 armed cops. The bar manager was out there throwing a temper tantrum. He was yelling! “They are not supposed to be here tonight. I was told they were coming tomorrow!” He was very angry. Now we and our crew had just driven 3 hours to get there. I knew he wouldn’t care about that. So I just walked up to him and stroked his arm and told him that I was sorry for the miscommunication. But, everything was going to be all right. I stood there and stroked his arm and spoke soothing words to him for about 5 minutes. Finally he got really mad, brushed off my hand and stormed into the bar. I looked at security and the cops, shrugged my shoulders and went back to work. About midnight a bug flew in my eye. I forgot that I had on eyelashes and rubbed my eye. Oops! The eyelash came off in my hand. Oh well.
When it got dark out, I had to put on my coal miners head flashlight. When you walk up and talk to someone you don’t want to shine a flashlight in their eyes, so I simply slide my headgear to the side.
There is a verse in the Bible that says even the rocks will praise him. I have pretty nice hair but whenever it rains or gets humid my hair gets pretty frizzy. And so about 2 in the morning the dew fell and my hair began to praise the Lord. It was like a head full of little hands all raised in worship to God. Now I was not praising God, but my hair was. My hair thought that I should join in praise and I didn’t, so my hair slapped me in the face.
I was out in front of the dollar store and an old lady pulled up in her Lexus and started for the dollar store. I said, “oh dear, don’t walk over there! There is wet paint! You have on very nice shoes, and you don’t want to get paint on them.” She said, “You are right I like these shoes. Thank you” and she went into the store. When she came out, she stopped and looked and me. I told her where to walk and she went to her car. She put her purchases in her car, started her car, stopped and got out. She came over and said, “Honey can I pray for you?” She wondered what had happed in my life that brought me to this position. I thought about my lacking an eyelash and my hair that was praising the Lord. And of course my coalminers head gear. I said, “Of course,” she prayed for me and drove off. I thought, now I am on the other side of the coin! I pray for people all the time. It was very funny.
Now I was feeling pretty good. I thought it wise to make friends with the cops and security down at the bar so one time when I walked by I looked at one of the cops and said, “You know not everyone can pull this off, but I can.” Everyone laughed.
My next job was to paint the handicap squares blue. After painting one I stood back to admire my work and stepped in the blue paint. Now if I walk around the parking lot with wet paint on the bottom of my shoe I would track blue paint all over. So I took my shoe off and set it upside down to dry.
I was still feeling pretty good. Amazing in fact. I mean, I was still going. God was giving me the energy I needed. The next time I walked by the bar (at this point I have one eyelash, hair that is praising the Lord, a coalminers flashlight on my head and only one shoe) I looked at the same cop and said, “What? This is my Tiera, pointing to my headlamp.” They all laughed.
The job was done and it was time to go home. So I went over there and picked up traffic cones and took them to the truck. I did that three times. My son who is the foreman, saw me and stopped me. I said, “Hey did we get new cones? This one doesn’t have any paint on it. And it’s soooo big.” My son said, “that’s not ours.” “Oh ok I’ll take it back.” “No” he said, “give it to me.” “Ok.” My son started towards the bar. But here was that cop chasing me. He trying to catch me and get the cone back that I had stolen! My son said “We are sorry. She made a mistake she thought it was ours.” The cop looked at my son and said, “Wow she can really move. I couldn’t catch up with her!” My son said, “She’s a Grandma!”
Oh my didn’t we have a laugh I had outrun a cop, because I had stolen a traffic cone! (I have a barn full of them).
You see how God had changed my attitude to laughter! By the end of the night everything was very funny.
The next day I went to lunch with my two sisters, We sat down to eat and the first one started talking about her husband and her kid and I said, “You need an attitude adjustment.” The other sister thought that was so funny because she agreed with me. Then she started talking about her job and her life. I said that she needed an attitude adjustment. Now it wasn’t so funny to her…….but it was to me! Maybe it’s not such a good idea to tell other people they need an attitude adjustment! Giggle!
If you find yourself in a position you never thought you would be in, If you find yourself doing things you never thought you would do, ask God for an attitude adjustment. We are all going through something we never thought we would.
Even though we believe the tribulation is over, we are still mortal humans walking on this earth, in difficult times. We want to acknowledge that you may be in a difficult place right now. But we still believe the worst is behind us. We still believe the future is bright. The trumpets, vials, angels, seals stars and thunders have all sounded, except the very last. We are waiting earnestly for the redemption of our mortal bodies in the twinkling of an eye. And we are waiting for that dragon to be placed in the bottomless pit.
It is done!
Forever in His Love,
Diane Ebaugh Sutton