Finding Joy & Peace in Our Everyday Conversations
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
James 1:19
This is one of my favorite quotes, and one that most of us struggle with daily. We all have our words, phrases, people or actions that immediately irritate us. I have found my self instantly mad at someone even if I was in a great mood just a few seconds before, just because they said something with tone, or repeated a phrase or action that they have been repeatedly asked not to. God wants us to listen to others and speak only kind and encouraging words. How many times have you caught yourself interrupting someone to put in your two cents? Did you think about what you are saying? What is the affect it would have on the conversation? Will it leave the other person feeling encouraged or thoughtful? Did it even have anything to do with what the other person was saying? We all have those people we know who always have something to say even if they know nothing about the conversation. Leaving you feel unheard or even angry to have spoken to them. Listening is a hard skill to master, but it also has the greatest rewards. You will find better relationships and opportunities, if you choose to listen before you speak. I also encourage you to pray before any meetings or conversations asking God to guide your words. If you find yourself in a conversation that is one-sided, silently pray that you can find meaning in what they have to say or that they will listen to you. We have the opportunity to wake up everyday, with every conversation, with every word spoken and choose to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. With Gods help you and I can listen to others, speak kind and encouraging words that lift up each conversation we have, and stop getting angry with every little thing.
Prayer
Please God be with us today and tomorrow as we wake up and go through our days. Please help us to listen to others and encourage them in your Godly ways. Help us to be slow to anger and find joy and peace in the conversations we have everyday.
Amen
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?”
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so……
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well……..
After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here’s the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer
