Is Prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
“I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.'”
Psalms 34:4
Do you only pray when you are in trouble? I find that when things are going really well, I don’t talk to God as much as I should. Life gets busy and we fill our days with so much that we don’t leave time to spend with God in prayer. This is so important especially as we move into the holiday season when our lives are filled with family and friends, food, travel, and gifts. Please don’t forget to talk to God. There is always time. First thing in the morning before you get out of bed, taking a shower, or driving to work. Take a second to thank God for the weather, your family, your animals, the food you ate, your friends, your job, there is always something. Find something to be thankful for no matter how small. God is listening. Ask God for guidance with a situation you are having. Ask to open our hearts to solutions we have not yet thought of. Pray for your family and friends health. With just a breath you will feel more connected with God and the person you truly want to be. Whether your in a season of peace and excitement, or troubled and hardships. Look for that opportunity to talk to God. He is listening to you. Also the more you pray the easier it gets. Try praying in a few different ways and see what works for you. Silently in your head and heart. Out loud in a quiet space. Write it down in a prayer journal. What ever way feels good to you. I have a friend that keeps a prayer journal and then goes back and writes how they were answered. It is not always our plan or the way we think it should go, but know that God does answer your prayers. Ask yourself is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? I encourage you to let God be your steering wheel, talk to him daily and let him guide your every decision. Don’t just come to God when you are stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire. Don’t keep your relationship with him tucked away for a rainy day, utilize your relationship with him every day!
Prayer
Please God be with us this week and encourage us to pray everyday several times a day. Feel our hearts with comfort and peace. Guide us in the direction you want us to go. Please God help us to make prayer our steering wheel and not our spare tire.
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