Making Mistakes
“Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.”
Amos 5:14
Throughout the book, it talks of all the sufferings that are going to come on to Israel, if they don’t change their ways.
I want to encourage everyone to go back and read the book of Amos from the beginning to the end.
This time when you read it look for God’s rays of sunshine in the words.
“I brought you up out of Egypt” Amos 2:10
Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7
“Seek Good, not evil, that you may live.” Amos 5:14
You see the beginning of the book of Amos is a warning to the Israelites. It tells them exactly what is about to happen for what they have done.
Honestly, it makes me sad to read. I struggle to comprehend why they didn’t listen to God.
Back to the point of this devotional though.
Knowing that God is always there for you even when it feels like the world is going to come crashing down.
We all make mistakes, just like the Israelites did.
Personally, I stumble every day. To be really honest, several times a day.
We have to know that as long as we seek the good in people and in ourselves, that God knows that.
He knows our true intentions.
Recently I had a conversation with one of our kids.
They kept saying, “it was a joke” every time something happened and they didn’t get the response they thought they’d get.
Believe me, it was NOT a joke.
After trying to convince them that a dad could tell when his kids were joking or not. I looked them straight in the eye and said, you know who can tell if you’re joking or serious?
GOD can.
No, it wasn’t a scare tactic, it was the truth.
Almost immediately I could see the change in their expression. They had known that I was right and also that they had made a mistake.
The key here is to remember that God knows that we make mistakes. He knows that others make mistakes too. He wants us to always look for the good in every situation we are in.
He wants us to find the rays of sunshine around us.
ACTION:
Take this one simple step and see how it changes not only your attitude but the attitude of those around you.
When anyone asks, “how are you today?” answer with, AMAZING! or AWESOME! Make sure you say it with enthusiasm.
Watch how you will bring the good out in others around you with one simple action.
Prayer
God, we know that we make mistakes all the time. I guess that means that others make mistakes too. We want to pray that you help us be as forgiving as you are. Help us to always see the good in others. Help us to hear you so we can grow in ways that we can’t even imagine yet. God, you are AMAZING, as we are so glad that you chose us to help you spread your word to the world. We know that sometimes we don’t always heed your advice, please forgive us for not listening. God, we want to do something a little different here. We want to ask for your help. We want to be able to hear you, forgive others for their mistakes, and yes forgive ourselves for our mistakes. Help us to grow every day. God, please be with us, guide us, and help our path to be the path you need us on. Thank you Lord.
Amen
Will you pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation
All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel
For all military personal serving our country and their families
Those in Leadership positions throughout the world
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
