Tis the season for Patience and Humility

“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Ephesians 4:2-3

With the week of Thanksgiving behind us and the Christmas season coming on there are many different devotionals we could write about how without Christ Christmas wouldn’t exist. We hope that you already realize that so we would like to focus more on humility and patience this week.

Humility is one of the things that we can loose very quickly in life. As soon as we start to “succeed” our humbleness can fly right out the window. I know this from past experiences I have to admit that I’m not the most humble person all of the time. What I can say is that every time God takes the tie to humble me, it’s always been a good lesson and I truly needed the teaching. I have also found that after I finally listened to him, I was more at peace than I was when I was arrogant. I also felt closer to him afterwards. 

Patience is another thing that I lack at times. Especially with my loved ones , & occasionally co workers. It would seem that the closer I get to someone the less patience I have with them. How is that? We should have more patience with the ones who are closer to us. It’s almost as though unconsciously we think that they have to be more forgiving. 

When I notice that I’m having issues with humility or patience (pretty much every day), Here’s what I try to do to keep myself in check. Are you ready this is some really extreme stuff right here. I PRAY. That’s right I take time and give it all back to God. I ask him to help me with my weaknesses and help me to be the person he wants and needs me to be. It’s pretty simple in the end, just give it all back to God and I’m closer to him, have more humility, and more patience with others and myself.

Prayer

Lord as I reflect today I would like to thank you for everything that you have given unto us. I would like to give you full credit for our lives and the abilities that you have blessed out hands and minds with the ability to perform. Lord I would also like to ask that you open our hearts to you and your word. That you take a few moments to show us who you would like us to be and how you need us to act and react. Lord we thank you taking time to help us where and when we need it. Thank you for your wisdom and knowledge please guide our every thought, conversation, and action through every season of our lives.

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